List of open-air and living history museums

Last updated December 13, 2024

Africa

Egypt

Luxor Upper Egypt
Memphis ruins
Karnak largest temple complex in the world

South Africa

Pilgrim's Rest, Mpumalaga Province
Worcester Museum (Klein plasie open-air museum), Worcester Western Cape
Sonskip / Aardskip earthship open-air museum, Orania Northern Cape

Tunisia

Djerba (Djerbahood).
Matmata (Open-Air Museum of "Troglodyte" houses), Governorate of Gabes, south part of Tunisia, the whole village registered by UNESCO World Heritage, today is maintained by the Association of the Cultural Protection of Matmata)
Oudhref (Open-air village museum), Governorate of Gabes

Asia

Japan

Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum, Tokyo
Hakone Open-Air Museum, Hakone, Kanagawa
Meiji Mura, Inuyama, Aichi
Nihon Minka-en (Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum), Kawasaki, Kanagawa
Open-Air Museum of Old Japanese Farmhouses, Osaka
Hida Minzoku Mura Folk Village, Takayama, Gifu
Kyodo no mori, Fuchū, Tokyo
Sankeien, Naka Ward, Yokohama
Shikoku Mura, Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture
Historical Village of Hokkaido (Hokkaidō Kaitaku no Mura), Sapporo, Hokkaido

Malaysia

Taman Tamadun Islam (Islamic Civilization Park), Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu

Europe

The wooden church in Drvengrad open-air museum, Serbia Kusta1.jpg — The wooden church in Drvengrad open-air museum, Serbia

France

Musée de plein air des maisons comtoises, Nancray, Doubs, Franche-Comté ^[1]
Musée de plein air de Villeneuve-d'Ascq, Villeneuve-d'Ascq
Ecomusée d'Alsace, Ungersheim

Germany

Bauernhausmuseum Amerang (Amerang Open Air Museum), Bavaria
Rüdersdorf Museum Park , Brandenburg
Bavarian Forest Museum Village, Tittling
Black Forest Open Air Museum "Vogtsbauernhof", Gutach, Baden-Württemberg
Campus Galli medieval town with Carolingian monastery, Meßkirch, Baden-Württemberg
Dat ole Huus, Wilsede, Lower Saxony
Detmold Open-air Museum, Detmold, North Rhine-Westphalia
Düppel museum village, Berlin
Freilichtmuseum Glentleiten|Glentleiten Open Air Museum, Bavaria
Groß Raden Archaeological Open Air Museum, nr Sternberg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Hagen Open-air Museum, Hagen, North Rhine-Westphalia
Hessenpark, Neu-Anspach, Hesse
Hitzacker Archaeological Centre, Hitzacker, Lower Saxony
Hösseringen Museum Village, Hösseringen, Lower Saxony
International Wind- and Watermill Museum, Gifhorn, Lower Saxony
Kommern Open-air Museum, Mechernich, North Rhine-Westphalia
Lindlar Open-air Museum, Lindlar, North Rhine-Westphalia
Lower Bavarian Open-Air Museums, Finsterau and Massing
Mödlareuth village, Bavaria and Thuringia
Oerlinghausen Archaeological Open-Air Museum (Das Archäologische Freilichtmuseum Oerlinghausen), Oerlinghausen, North Rhine-Westphalia
Ore Mountain Toy Museum, Seiffen, Saxony
Pfahlbaumuseum Unteruhldingen, Unteruhldingen, Baden-Württemberg
Rhineland-Palatinate Open Air Museum Bad Sobernheim (Rheinland-Pfälzisches Freilichtmuseum Bad Sobernheim), Bad Sobernheim, Rhineland-Palatinate
Rischmannshof Heath Museum, Walsrode, Lower Saxony
Roscheider Hof, Konz, Rhineland-Palatinate
Slavic Village Passentin, near Neubrandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Swabian Farm Museum ( Schwäbisches Bauernhofmuseum Illerbeuren), Illerbeuren, Bavaria
Winsen Museum Farm, Winsen (Aller), Lower Saxony

Georgia

Tbilisi Open Air Museum of Ethnography, Tbilisi

Hungary

Hungarian open air museum (Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum), Szentendre
Szennai Szabadtéri Néprajzi Gyűjtemény, Szenna
Göcseji Falumúzeum, Zalaegerszeg
Őrségi Népi Műemlékegyüttes, Szalafő-(Pityerszer)
Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, Ópusztaszer
Sóstói Múzeumfalu, Nyíregyháza
Vasi Múzeumfalu, Szombathely
Hollókői Falumúzeum, Hollókő
Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, Nagyvázsony
Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, Tihany
Emese Várispánság Szigethalom

Isle of Man

Cregneash - The first open-air museum in the British Isles

Italy

Museo a Cielo Aperto Ulàssai (Open-Air Museum Ulàssai)
Museodiffuso
Poggibonsi Archaeodrome - Open Air Museum
Bostel di Rotzo - Castelletto di Rotzo, Vicenza

Lithuania

Europos Parkas – museum of worlds contemporary art set in nature
Rumšiškės open-air ethnographic museum

Norway

Agatunet (see Norwegian language site Agatunet)
Bjørgan parsonage, Kvikne
Dølmotunet, Tolga (see North Østerdalen Museums)
Folldal Bygdetun - Uppigard Streitlien, Folldal (see North Østerdalen Museums)
Folldal Gruver, Folldal (see Norwegian language site Folldal Gruver)
The Heiberg Collection, Kaupanger (see Norwegian language site De Heibergske Samlinger)
Husantunet, Alvdal (see North Østerdalen Museums)
Norwegian Museum of Cultural History, Oslo
Maihaugen, Lillehammer
Os Museum - Oddentunet, Os (see North Østerdalen Museums)
Romsdal Museum, Molde
Rendalen Village Museum, Rendalen (see North Østerdalen Museums)
Trøndelag folkemuseum, Sverresborg, Trondheim
Tylldalen Bygdetun, Tylldalen (see North Østerdalen Museums)
Tynset Bygdemuseum, Tynset (see North Østerdalen Museums)
Vest-Agder Museum, Kristiansand
Vollan Gård, Kvikne (see Norwegian language site Vollan gård)

Romania

ASTRA National Museum Complex, Sibiu
Reșița Steam Locomotive Museum, Reșița
Transylvanian Museum of Ethnography, Cluj-Napoca
Village Museum "Dimitrie Gusti" - Muzeul Național al Satului "Dimitrie Gusti", Bucharest
Banat Village Museum - Muzeul Satului Bănățean, Timișoara, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banat_Village_Museum, https://muzeulsatuluibanatean.ro/
Museum of folk art and ethnography - Muzeul Satului din Baia Mare, Baia Mare
Village Museum - Muzeul Satului Petrești Vrancea, Petrești Vrancea
Museum "Haszmann Pál", Cernatu de Sus
Museum of folk architecture - Muzeul Arhitecturii Populare, Gorj
Ethnographic museum - Muzeul Etnografic, Reghin
Maramureș Village Museum, Sighetu Marmației
Bucovina Village Museum - Muzeul Satului Bucovinean, Suceava
Ednomon - Virtual Museum of Ethnographical Monuments in Romanian Open Air Museums
Goleşti Viticulture And Tree Growing Museum, Golești

Serbia

Drvengrad (Mećavnik, Küstendorf), Mokra Gora (Zlatibor)
Staro selo (Old Village open-air museum), Sirogojno (Zlatibor)

Slovakia

Banská Štiavnica
Bardejov
Humenné
Kysuce Village Museum, Nova Bystrica
Museum of folk architecture, Čičmany
Museum of Liptov Village, Pribylina
Museum of the Slovak Village, Múzeum Slovenskej Dediny, Martin
Slovak Agricultural Museum, Nitra
Stará Ľubovňa
Svidník
Vlkolínec
Zuberec – Brestová, Orava Village Museum

Sweden

Torekällberget Södertälje

Gamla Linköping Linköping ^[3]

Ukraine

Baturyn Fortress Citadel, Baturyn
Mamayeva Sloboda Cossack village Museum, Kyiv
Open-air Museum of Architecture and Ethnography in Pyrohiv, Kyiv
Museum of Folk Architecture and Culture, (see Kryvka Church), Lviv
Museum of Folk Architecture and Life, Uzhhorod
Museum of Folk Life and Architecture, Pereiaslav
National Reserve Khortytsia, Zaporizja
Museum "Old Village", Kolochava
Historical and ethnographic museum, Sarny
Museum of Folk Architecture and Life, Chernivtsi

United Kingdom

England

Anne of Cleves House, Lewes
Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings, Worcestershire
Amberley Working Museum, Amberley, West Sussex
Beamish, North of England Open Air Museum, Beamish, County Durham
Black Country Living Museum, Dudley, West Midlands
Blists Hill Victorian Town, Telford, Shropshire
Butser Ancient Farm, Chalton, Hampshire
Chiltern Open Air Museum, Chalfont St. Giles, Buckinghamshire
Church Farm Museum, Agricultural museum and collection of indigenous buildings, Skegness
Cogges Manor Farm Museum, Witney, Oxfordshire
Little Woodham, Gosport, Hampshire
Manor Farm Country Park, Bursledon, Hampshire
Milestones Museum, Basingstoke, Hampshire
Morwellham Quay, Devon
Murton Park / Yorkshire Museum of Farming in Murton, York
Museum of East Anglian Life, Stowmarket, Suffolk
National Coal Mining Museum for England, Wakefield, West Yorkshire
Rural Life Living Museum, Tilford, Surrey
Ryedale Folk Museum, North York Moors, North Yorkshire
Weald and Downland Open Air Museum, Sussex
West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village, Suffolk
West Yorkshire Folk Museum, in grounds of Shibden Hall, Halifax
Wimpole Home Farm, Cambridgeshire
York Castle Museum, York

Scotland

National Museum of Rural Life, East Kilbride, Lanarkshire
Scottish Crannog Centre at Loch Tay, Perth and Kinross
Auchindrain – near Inveraray, Argyll and Bute
The Gearrannan Blackhouses, Isle of Lewis
Skye Museum of Island Life, near Kilmuir, Isle of Skye,
Highland Folk Museum, Newtonmore
Industrial open-air museum of New Lanark

Wales

Northern Ireland

Ulster American Folk Park, Castleton, County Tyrone
Ulster Folk & Transport Museum, Cultra, County Down

North America

Canada

Fortress Louisbourg, Nova Scotia Louisbourg04.jpg — Fortress Louisbourg, Nova Scotia

Barkerville, British Columbia
Ball's Falls Conservation Area, Jordan, Ontario
Black Creek Pioneer Village, Toronto, Ontario
Bronte Creek Provincial Park (Spruce Lane Farmhouse), Oakville, Ontario
Burnaby Village Museum, Burnaby, British Columbia
Canada's Polish Kashub Heritage Museum & Skansen, Wilno, Ontario
Discovery Harbour, Penetanguishene, Ontario
Doon Heritage Village, Kitchener, Ontario
Fanshawe Pioneer Village, London, Ontario
Fort Henry, Ontario
Fort Edmonton Park, Edmonton, Alberta
Fort Langley National Historic Site, Fort Langley, British Columbia
Fortress of Louisbourg, Louisbourg, Nova Scotia
Fort William Historical Park, Thunder Bay, Ontario
Fort York, Toronto, Ontario
Greater Sudbury Heritage Museums
Halifax Citadel National Historic Site of Canada (Citadel Hill), Halifax, Nova Scotia
Highland Village Museum, Iona, Nova Scotia
Heritage Park Historical Village, Calgary, Alberta
Kalyna Country, an ecomuseum
Kawartha Settlers' Village, Bobcaygeon, Ontario
Lang Pioneer Village Museum, Peterborough, Ontario
Muskoka Heritage Place, Huntsville, Ontario
Kings Landing Historical Settlement, Prince William, New Brunswick
Lower Fort Garry National Historic Site, Selkirk, Manitoba
Markham Museum, Markham, Ontario
Mennonite Heritage Village, Steinbach, Manitoba
Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, Midland, Ontario
Sherbrooke Village, Sherbrooke, Nova Scotia
Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village, Alberta
Upper Canada Village, Morrisburg, Ontario
Village Historique Acadien, Caraquet, New Brunswick
Village Québécois d'Antan, Drummondville, Quebec
West Coast Railway Heritage Park, Squamish, British Columbia
Westfield Heritage Village, Rockton, Ontario
Pickering Museum Village, Pickering, Ontario

Mexico

Parque-Museo La Venta, Villahermosa, Tabasco

Oceania

Australia

The Pioneer Settlement, Swan Hill, Victoria, Australia's First Open Air Museum, opened 1966.
Old Gippstown, Moe, Victoria opened 1973
Port Arthur, Tasmania
Sovereign Hill, Ballarat, Victoria
Millewa Pioneer Forest and Historical Village, Meringur, Victoria
Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum, Warrnambool, Victoria
Old Sydney Town, Somersby, New South Wales (now closed)
Miles Historical Village and Museum, Miles, Queensland
Old Tailem Town Archived 2016-08-21 at the Wayback Machine , Tailem Bend, South Australia
Australiana Pioneer Village Archived 2016-09-16 at the Wayback Machine , Wilberforce, NSW

New Zealand

Ferrymead, Christchurch a recreation of a 1900 -1920 settlement in Canterbury, complete with homes, stores, shops and working steam trains
Howick Colonial Village, Auckland, an authentic 1850s Fencible village featuring old homes, stores and community halls. There is also occasional re creation days with volunteers in period dress
Shantytown, Greymouth, a Historic them park opened in 1971 dedicated to the 1860s to 1900s Gold rush on the West Coast. The sheltered location includes several old time stores, printing press and a small model train that goes into a gully, you can also pan for Gold and take it home with you.
Thames and Coromandel, this scenic region outside and near Auckland features several working mine attractions, museums and historic stores dedicated to the late 19th century gold boom in the Coromandel. Thames has several old mines, the Pump Museum and School of Mines, the Karangahake gorge features historic relics in a scenic walk and Waihi and Coromandel townships also preserve their God Rush heritage.
Gibbs Farm - private outdoor sculpture garden developed by Alan Gibbs. Located on North Island.

South America

Living transportation museums

Brooklands in Weybridge, Elmbridge, Surrey, England (aviation and motorcar museum)
Çamlık Railway Museum (Çamlık Tren Müzesi) in Çamlık, Turkey (railway museum)
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park from Georgetown, Washington, D.C. to Cumberland, Maryland (heritage canal)
Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad from Chama, New Mexico to Antonito, Colorado (heritage railway)
Danish Tramway Museum (Sporvejsmuseet Skjoldenæsholm) in Skjoldenæsholm, Denmark
Delta Queen travels along the Mississippi River and tributaries (heritage river steamboat)
Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum in Bremerhaven, Germany (maritime museum)
Edaville Railroad in South Carver, Massachusetts (heritage railway)
Hiroshima City Transportation Museum in Hiroshima, Japan (street railway museum)
Mystic Seaport in Mystic, Connecticut (maritime museum)
National Tramway Museum in Derbyshire, England (heritage street railway)
Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in Rhinebeck, New York (aviation museum)
Roscoe Village in Coshocton, Ohio (along the former Ohio & Erie Canal, nearby Monticello III canal boat)
San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, San Francisco, California (includes a fleet of historic vessels)
Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine (heritage railway)
Shuttleworth Collection in Bedfordshire, England (aviation museum)
Narrow Gauge Railway Museum in Wenecja near Żnin
Skansen Parowozownia Kościerzyna in Kościerzyna, Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland (heritage railway)
Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton, Pennsylvania (heritage railway)
Valley Railroad Company in Essex, Connecticut (heritage railway)
White Pass and Yukon Route from Skagway, Alaska to Whitehorse, Yukon (heritage railway)
Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway in Alna, Maine (heritage railway)
Royal Malaysian Air Force Museum Archived 2016-06-24 at the Wayback Machine , Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (military aviation)

Ecological and environmental living museums

Some ecological living museums are zoos

California Living Museum, Bakersfield, California, United States
Virginia Living Museum, Newport News, Virginia, United States
Nonsuch Island Living Museum, Bermuda
Penang Forestry Museum, Penang, Malaysia
Ball's Falls Conservation Area, Jordan, Ontario, Canada

Related Research Articles

Artur Immanuel Hazelius was a Swedish teacher, scholar, folklorist and museum director. He was the founder of both the Nordic Museum and the Skansen open-air museum in Stockholm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open-air museum</span> Museum that exhibits collections of buildings and artifacts out-of-doors

An open-air museum is a museum that exhibits collections of buildings and artifacts outdoors. It is also frequently known as a museum of buildings or a folk museum.

The Netherlands Open Air Museum is a national open-air museum located in Arnhem. It focuses on the culture associated with the everyday lives of ordinary people, and demonstrating the old way of life in the Netherlands.

The Village Museum or formally National Museum of the Village "Dimitrie Gusti" is an open-air ethnographic museum located in the King Michael I Park, Bucharest, Romania. The museum showcases traditional Romanian village life. The museum extends to over 100,000 m², and contains 123 authentic peasant settlements, 363 monuments and over 50,000 artefacts from around Romania. Structures in the museum ranged from the 17th to the 20th century, representative of different ethnographic regions including Banat, Transylvania, Moldavia, Maramures, Oltenia, Dobrogea, Muntenia.

The Upper Silesian Ethnographic Park is an open-air museum in Chorzów, Poland. It is referred to as a skansen, stemming from the first open-air museum of its kind, the Skansen in Stockholm, Sweden. The area of the park is 25 hectares.

The Rural Architecture Museum of Sanok is one of the biggest open-air museums in Poland. It was established in 1958 by Aleksander Rybicki and contains 200 buildings which have been relocated from different areas of Sanok Land. The Sanok museum shows 19th and early 20th century life in this area of Poland.

A folk museum is a museum that deals with folk culture and heritage. Such museums cover local life in rural communities. A folk museum typically displays historical objects that were used as part of the people's everyday lives. Examples of such objects include clothes and tools. Many folk museums are also open-air museums and some cover rural history.

The Museum of Ethnography is a national museum in Budapest, Hungary.

The Estonian Open Air Museum is a life-sized reconstruction of an 18th-19th century rural/fishing village, which includes church, tavern, schoolhouse, several mills, a fire station, twelve farmyards and net sheds. Furthermore, it includes a recently opened 20th century Soviet kolkhoz apartment building, and a prefabricated modern wooden house from 2019. The site spans 72 hectares of land and along with the farmyards, old public buildings are arranged singularly and in groups in a way that represents an overview of Estonian vernacular architecture of the past two centuries from across Estonia.

Wdzydze Kiszewskie is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Kościerzyna, within Kościerzyna County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. It lies approximately 13 kilometres (8 mi) south of Kościerzyna and 61 km (38 mi) south-west of the regional capital Gdańsk.

Slovakia has around 14 open-air museums, or skanzens, showcasing the country's folk traditions, architecture, and economic history. The museums include examples of traditional buildings and furnishings, and many offer demonstrations of traditional handicrafts. The largest open-air museum is the Slovak Village Open Air Museum in Martin.

The Cloppenburg Museum Village and Lower Saxon Open-Air Museum located in the Lower Saxon county town of Cloppenburg is the oldest museum village in Germany. The museum is a research and educational establishment specializing in cultural and rural history.

The Ethnographic Museum of Transylvania is situated in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. With a history of almost 100 years, the Ethnographic Museum of Transylvania is one of the first and greatest of its kind in Romania. It has two exhibition sections, one of which is to be found in downtown Reduta Palace, while the other exhibition section is the open-air Romulus Vuia Park situated on the city's north-west side, in Hoia Forest.

The Hungarian Open-air Museum is Hungary’s largest outdoor ethnographic collection, founded in 1967. The open-air museum shows Carpathian folk architecture, and life in various regions of Hungary. It's collection consists of a mix of authentic structures transported to the 63 hectare museum site, and precise replicas of folk architecture. The permanent collection features exhibits spanning the period between the mid 18th century and the mid 20th century.

North Østerdalen Museums is a museum in the northern part of Norway's Østerdalen district.

The Kriza János Ethnographic Society is ethnographical research institute founded in Cluj, Romania in 1990. Its objective is to serve as professional representation of the ethnic Hungarian ethnographers from Romania, and to provide an institutional framework for research and professional work. Since its inception has been operating continuously, and as ethnographic research and ethnographic education began to develop, its activities expanded and diversified. From 1994 the Society has its own headquarters, where a library, an archive, a publisher and a lecture hall is housed. The latter is used for ethnographic lectures and exhibitions.

Podlaskie Museum of Folk Culture is an open-air museum, gathering monuments of wooden architecture and ethnographic collections from the Bialystok, Lomza and Suwalki regions. Established from the merger of the Białystok Village Museum and the Ethnography Department of the Podlaskie Museum, previously it was a branch of the Museum.

The Banat Village Museum is an open-air ethnographic museum in northeastern Timișoara, at the edge of the Green Forest. Spread over an area of 17 ha, the museum is designed as a traditional Banat village and includes peasant households belonging to various ethnic groups in Banat, buildings with social function of the traditional village, folk art installations and workshops.

References

External links

Association for Living History, Farm and Agricultural Museums
Revista Digital Nueva Museologia Archived 2016-04-22 at the Wayback Machine Latin American Theory
European Open-air Museums Archived 2016-11-01 at the Wayback Machine An extensive list of Open-air museums in Europe.
America's Outdoor History Museums
Photos from Museum of Folk Architecture and Life Archived 2017-12-22 at the Wayback Machine

Museum websites

Open Air Museum Bokrijk Leading open-air museum of Belgium, Flanders.
Přerov nad Labem open-air museum - photo gallery
Valachian Ethnographic Museum in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm, Czech Republic Archived 2016-09-08 at the Wayback Machine
Hjerl Hede- An open-air museum in Denmark showing life from the early days until about 100 years ago.
The Old Town (Den Gamle By)- An open-air museum in Denmark showing urban life.
Jamtli – One of Sweden's largest and oldest regional open-air museums, in Östersund.
fr:Musée de plein air de Villeneuve-d'Ascq

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