Foteviken Viking Town & Museum Höllviken Sweden | Parents News: Information For Families in the UK

Photos copyright Regina D. Utyasheva

At the beginning of the Viking Age, the Nordic countries society was mainly made up of different clan communities. These settlements were either isolated farms or small villages out on the grasslands. The landscape was completely different from todays with large areas of wetlands and thick vegetation, so hamlets settled on the plains. The first early cities in Scania (Skane) were Lund, Lomma and Helsingborg.

The Viking town Foteviken is supposed to epitomise this closely populated area a few years after 1134 AD – this is during the late Viking Age/ Early Middle Age. It was during the year 1134 AD that the bloody battle at Foteviken occurred. A period of transition as Lund was made archdiocese of the whole Nordic region a stone cathedral was under construction as out in the rural areas where people still prayed to the old gods.

Foteviken Museum is the world’s only reconstructed Viking town and is one of Scandinavia’s biggest archaeological open air museums. This is a living history museum there are no glass display cases here instead you will find an entire Viking town. Volunteers live in the town so that it truly come alive. The huts are reconstructed using the materials and techniques of the time, as historically correct as possible. As well as the pit houses there is a bakery complex, the weaver’s house, a smokehouse, pottery workhouse, merchant’s estate Guard tower and many more.

Every summer they have a Viking Market with handicrafts and free workshops: wrought iron; ribbon weaving; colouring; cooking; wood carving and lots more. See website for 2015 dates.

And of course it would not be a Viking attraction without a battle! The Battle of Foteviken is re-enactment of an actual battle where it occurred. Nowadays you can take a peaceful stroll through the narrow streets and discover the smithy, tannery, bakery, a large banquet hall, lookout tower, pig pen. Live like a Viking by hiring an onsite cabin, lots more info available on their website www.foteviken.se