Västerbotten Museum

Umeå, Sweden

Västerbottens museum in the Gammlia area of Umeå, Sweden is a county museum with responsibility for the cultural history of Västerbotten County. The museum consists of the Gammlia open-air museum, a ski exhibition (previously the Swedish Ski Museum), an exhibition of Fishing and Maritime (previously the Fishing and Maritime Museum), the popular movement archive of Västerbotten County and a number of Sami camps.

Gammlia is an open-air museum that is an integrated part of the Västerbottens museum. The open-air museum has a collection of historical buildings and organizes activities to showcase what Västerbotten looked like in historical times. The buildings that can be viewed at Gammlia have been brought together from different parts of the county; including Helena Elisabeth Church, a manor house, a windmill, an 18th-century farmhouse, a school, a blacksmith shop and a number of Sami camps. During summertime Swedish native breeds of horses, cows, sheep, pigs and chickens are on display in the open-air museum. Among the daily activities are butter churning, baking bread tunnbröd, crafts and handicrafts. The farms are open for viewing from mid-June to late August, and during the annual Christmas market. The outdoor area is always open to visitors.

History

The Västerbotten County Antiquarian Society reached a decision at a meeting in January 1886 that "as a storage room for antiquities a museum shall be established in Umeå." It was initially located in the Ullbergska property in what nowadays is the block Thor on Storgatan. The Southern department's collection of objects were completely destroyed by the great city fire in Umeå on 25 June 1888, when most of the city was destroyed.

In 1901, the establishment relocated to the newly built grammar school. Due to the increasing size of the collection, the museum moved to the large warehouse by the city port in 1911. From the very start the local historical society, which was formed in 1919, was working for the establishment of a museum building in the Gammlia area. The building was completed in 1939.

Between 1921 and 1990, various older buildings from Västerbotten County were moved to the area. The original plan was to have a farm from the northern part of the county and one from the south, but because of high costs it was instead decided to compile some buildings from the north and some from the south of Västerbotten into a single farm.

In 1928, a ski museum was inaugurated in a ski jump tower in the recreational area Fiskartorpet at Norra Djurgården in Stockholm. In 1963, the collections were moved to the Swedish Ski Museum in Umeå. One of the museum's artefacts is the world's oldest ski.

The main building of Västerbottens museum was designed by the architect Bengt Romare and was constructed in 1943.

The museum has since expanded several times and one of the largest expansions in 1981 made it possible for Bildmuseet – a contemporary art museum of Umeå University – to move in. In 2012, Bildmuseet relocated to a new building on the Umeå Arts Campus and Västerbottens museum was thus able to expand in its previous premises.

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Details

Founded: 1919
Category: Museums in Sweden
Historical period: Modern and Nonaligned State (Sweden)

More Information

en.wikipedia.org
www.vbm.se

Rating

4.3/5 (based on Google user reviews)

User Reviews

Nigel McKinley (3 months ago)
Lovely outdoor display of real farm and residual buildings from older times that have been relocated here. Great place to bring children as there are many interactive exhibits manned by the museum staff. I particularly liked the live butter making exhibit, manned by a lovely informative young lady. You can taste the butter afterwards, brought me back to butter my mother made when I was a child. Inside are exhibitions, art, textiles and stone age settlements, including the oldest snow skis in the world. Well worth a quiet and relaxing afternoon. Plus it’s Free!
Britta Derington (3 months ago)
Such a nice visit to my childhood town museum. How many times have I been here? Lots. And it's free. Nice cafeteria too!
Micael Hellberg (3 months ago)
Super great experience and totally free. There is a gift shop and a cafe you can spend some money at though. There is something for everyone in this museum, its so diverse. If you are interested in art, history, buildings, textiles they have it. If you only got a few hours you might need to pick the most interesting areas. When we visited there were a temporary exhibition about abortion which was heart breaking but such an important topic. If its there go see it. The outdoor part is mostly buildings along with information, which we really appreciated. Its a kilometer plus walk, but well worth it.
Irma Í Chuív (4 months ago)
Very interesting museum and outdoor museum. Personnel Very friendly and helpful with a lot of information about the history of Sweden. It's really worth a visit
NBLâm HMUPH (6 months ago)
Västerbotten museum locate in the Gammlia area. It's completely free to enter and have a good time here. The stuff they show here is not the most surprising, some of the descriptions only in Swedish. Overall it is still a pretty good museum especially since they have a lot of events going on here.
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