ABSTRACT
The construction of restoration villages, open-air architectural muse-
ums and living-history theme parks was arguably fostered by the
Great Exhibitions of the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centu-
ries. It was the Swedish philologist Arthur Hazelius who founded
Skansen, the first permanent architectural open-air museum in 1891
(Conan 1996). On a 75-acre park in Stockholm, Hazelius attempted
to preserve architecture, crafts, traditional costumes and lifestyles
alike. Volunteers dressed in traditional clothes inhabited this themed
village performing scenes from rural everyday life, songs and dances,
old crafts and made traditional food. Real, unaltered rural houses
were brought to this village and reassembled faithfully composing
a stage-set for the preservation of native tradition. Inspired by
Skansen, the trend of constructing ethnic villages spread all over
Europe and the United States.
