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Established in 1891, Skansen is the world's oldest open-air museum. Located on the island of Djurgården in Stockholm, this authentic living history facility showcases Sweden's heritage by way of an astonishing replica of a 19th-century town, with houses and homesteads from every corner of the country.
The visitor experience at Skansen is heightened by the many locals attired in period costume reenacting traditional arts and crafts, including those working as tanners, shoemakers, silversmiths, bakers, and dressmakers.
The Norwegian Museum of Cultural History is one of Oslo's most popular visitor attractions. More than 150 buildings, relocated from towns and villages across the country, have been meticulously restored and preserved, including the iconic 13th-century Gol Stave Church. Pictured are historic buildings from Hovin and Gransherad in Telemark.
Besides fine examples of vernacular architecture, the museum showcases how people lived in the 16th century through costumed interpreters and extensive collections of artifacts from all social groups across all regions of the country.
America's most celebrated open-air museum is Colonial Williamsburg, the historic district of Williamsburg in Virginia. Serving as one vast living history lesson, Colonial Williamsburg features several hundred restored or recreated buildings from the 18th century, structures such as the governor's palace (pictured), known for its decorative grandeur.
Costumed interpreters and role players greet visitors to Colonial Williamsburg with reenactments of everyday life as it would have been in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. The "drummers call" (pictured) is a visual treat.
Den Gamle By translates into English as The Old Town, and this scenic recreation of an authentic Danish village is as good as its word. Situated in Aarhus, this open-air town museum features a collection of colorful half-timbered buildings originally erected between 1550 and the late 19th century in various parts of the country and later moved to their present location.
One of the village's outstanding landmarks is the apothecary, the old pharmacy that dates back to the 18th century and is the best preserved example of its kind in the country.
Set within the Austrian Alps between Innsbruck and Kufstein is this unique open-air museum, a cluster of over 30 traditional farm buildings, barns, and outhouses that exemplify rural Tyrolean architecture from the 1500s to the 1700s.
A highlight of the museum calendar is the Medieval Days hosted in August and set around one of the oldest buildings on site, the wooden Tierstaller farm from 1557.
Around 80 historic houses, farms, and windmills form the centerpiece of the excellent Netherlands Open-Air Museum in Arnhem. This is the country's first and largest folk museum, designed to create a highly realistic impression of Dutch daily life over the past few centuries.
The antique flavor is tangible, with the emphasis firmly placed on recreating the atmosphere associated with the everyday lives of ordinary people—and visitors are encouraged to roll up their sleeves and immerse themselves in the community spirit.
Another famous American living history museum, the Plimoth Patuxet (known also as the Plimoth Plantation) brings to life the history of Plymouth Colony and the indigenous homeland established in the 17th century by English colonists who became known as the Pilgrims. The site is found along the shore of Plymouth Harbor in Massachusetts.
Role players and native peoples model 17th-century life on the plantation, alongside of which is a recreation of a Native American Wampanoag home site. Pictured is a scene where a meal is being cooked for the first Thanksgiving observed at the settlement.
Australia's top open-air museum, Sovereign Hill at Golden Point in Ballarat near Melbourne is a remarkable recreation of a mid-19th-century mining town, bringing to life the character and excitement of Australia's great 1850's gold rush era.
Comprising over 60 historically authentic buildings staffed by costumed workers and volunteers, Sovereign Hill digs deep into the history of the times by way of workshop demonstrations, gold panning opportunities, and a tramway ride into a mine.
Set near the town of Stanley, Beamish Living Museum is acclaimed for its astonishingly realistic sense of the past, where urban and rural life in North East England from the 1820s to the 1940s is faithfully recreated using film set quality buildings and infrastructure.
Staff dressed in period costume can be found tending shops and business premises, like this gentleman overseeing the local newspaper printing press.
The Ecomusée d’Alsace is one of the largest and most visited open-air village museums in France. Located in Ungersheim, Écomusée d’Alsace recreates an Alsatian village from the early 20th century.
Visitors can explore around 80 rural buildings standing as they would have looked over 100 years ago, a rare collection that includes half-timbered houses, a schoolhouse, chapel, several barns, and a sawmill.
Tucked away in rolling hills near Singleton in southern England is this long established open-air museum. Created to preserve examples of regional vernacular architecture, the museum brings to life the homes, farmsteads, and rural industries of the last 950 years.
The museum is very much hands on, with daily demonstrations of cooking, weaving, and traditional farming techniques set against seasonal shows and activity weekends.
One of 10 Ironbridge Gorge museums set in the county of Shropshire, Blists Hill Victorian Town stands on a late 19th-century former industrial complex and recreates the sights, sounds, and smells of what life was like in a busy Victorian-era rural town.
Visitors are spirited back to a period during the Industrial Revolution and are welcomed into numerous homes, shops, factories, and schools by costumed interpreters, who happily impart the history and culture behind the town and its place in Victorian society.
Mystic Seaport is the leading maritime museum in the United States. Settled in 1654, Mystic was once one of Connecticut's busiest ports, its harbor the location of several shipyards and other commercial buildings and workshops.
Today, Mystic stands as a 19th-century seafaring village replete with 60-odd historic buildings and where several vessels are moored as National Historic Landmarks, including the Charles W. Morgan (pictured), the only surviving wooden whaling ship in the country, launched way back in 1841.
Created to preserve the rural architecture of the Black Forest in Germany's Gutach region, this important museum is centered on the fully furnished Vogtsbauernhof farmhouse (pictured), dating from 1612 and which still stands on its original site.
Vogtsbauernhof, together with five other farmhouses, form the core of the museum. Barns, cottages, and a chapel can also be explored. Waiting to greet visitors are locals dressed in traditional costumes like these women, whose hats are topped with pom-poms called Bollenhuete.
Strawbery Banke Museum stands in the heart of historic downtown Portsmouth in New Hampshire—the oldest neighborhood in the state, settled by Europeans back in 1630. Pictured is Peacock House, built in 1821.
As an outdoor history museum, Strawbery Banke features more than 37 restored building from the 17th to the 19th centuries, which help bring 300 or so years of American history to life.
Sources: (KLM) (Britannica) (Sea History)
The open-air museum is where history is brought to life. Essentially an institution that exhibits collections of buildings and artifacts out-of-doors, these are places that preserve our heritage by reenacting the everyday life of people from bygone years. Indeed, visiting a living history museum is to step back in time to a world far removed from the 21st century. So, where can you find the past in the present?
Click through and take a trip down memory lane.
The world's best open-air and living history museums
These places reenact the everyday life of people from bygone years
TRAVEL Educational
The open-air museum is where history is brought to life. Essentially an institution that exhibits collections of buildings and artifacts out-of-doors, these are places that preserve our heritage by reenacting the everyday life of people from bygone years. Indeed, visiting a living history museum is to step back in time to a world far removed from the 21st century. So, where can you find the past in the present?
Click through and take a trip down memory lane.