Wadköping Open Air Museum, Örebro, Sweden

Wadköping open-air museum with its wooden buildings and courtyards gives an idea of what Örebro's buildings and city environment used to look like. Wadköping has been located here since its opening in 1965 and comprises buildings and courtyards moved here from central Örebro. A town street runs through the middle of Wadköping with buildings on either side. One side, with its low-proportioned, red-painted buildings depicts 17th, 18th and early 19th century buildings, while the other side shows Örebro´s city environment after the great fire of 1854.

Nowadays the buildings in Wadköping are home to shops, craft workshops, museums and exhibition venues. The area is open all year round admission free.

References:

Örebro Kommun

User Reviews

Michael B (2 months ago)
I might be unfair only giving 4 stars. Wadköping definitely gets 5 stars for Ambiance and Cozy Feeling. The quality of the place is in top and an absolute must to visit if you have the least interest in history. My only reason to take it down to 4 stars is that I think I have seen better similar places with regards to information about the historical period depicted. A bit too commercial for my taste, but at the same time I have to say my wife loved it :)

Espen Engan (3 months ago)
Nice place with different small shops. I’ve cream shop was very nice and had good selection and tasty ice cream. There is also a park, playground and nice walking areas around.

Mathias Landell (3 months ago)
Nice place with a cozy feeling. Had a stroll here for 1.5h. Walking around and looking at the old houses and various shops. Would recommend.

Geoffrey Poynter (3 months ago)
Great spot. Original old buildings with a variety of small business on site. Very pleasant to wander around

Kev Fiske (15 months ago)
Just an excellently set and maintained attraction, wonderful history and historical buildings, food - and of course Ice Cream got two kids 12 & 9 giving thumbs up. A great place to spend time. Full marks!

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

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Broch of Gurness

The Broch of Gurness is an Iron Age broch village. Settlement here began sometime between 500 and 200 BC. At the centre of the settlement is a stone tower or broch, which once probably reached a height of around 10 metres. Its interior is divided into sections by upright slabs. The tower features two skins of drystone walls, with stone-floored galleries in between. These are accessed by steps. Stone ledges suggest that there was once an upper storey with a timber floor. The roof would have been thatched, surrounded by a wall walk linked by stairs to the ground floor. The broch features two hearths and a subterranean stone cistern with steps leading down into it. It is thought to have some religious significance, relating to an Iron Age cult of the underground.

The remains of the central tower are up to 3.6 metres high, and the stone walls are up to 4.1 metres thick. The tower was likely inhabited by the principal family or clan of the area but also served as a last resort for the village in case of an attack.

The broch continued to be inhabited while it began to collapse and the original structures were altered. The cistern was filled in and the interior was repartitioned. The ruin visible today reflects this secondary phase of the broch's use.

The site is surrounded by three ditches cut out of the rock with stone ramparts, encircling an area of around 45 metres diameter. The remains of numerous small stone dwellings with small yards and sheds can be found between the inner ditch and the tower. These were built after the tower, but were a part of the settlement's initial conception. A 'main street' connects the outer entrance to the broch. The settlement is the best-preserved of all broch villages.

Pieces of a Roman amphora dating to before 60 AD were found here, lending weight to the record that a 'King of Orkney' submitted to Emperor Claudius at Colchester in 43 AD.

At some point after 100 AD the broch was abandoned and the ditches filled in. It is thought that settlement at the broch continued into the 5th century AD, the period known as Pictish times. By that time the broch was not used anymore and some of its stones were reused to build smaller dwellings on top of the earlier buildings. Until about the 8th century, the site was just a single farmstead.

In the 9th century, a Norse woman was buried at the site in a stone-lined grave with two bronze brooches and a sickle and knife made from iron. Other finds suggest that Norse men were buried here too.

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