The Brage Open-Air Museum

BRAGEGÅRDEN

Most of the buildings in the museum area originate from a farm called Harf in Böle in Närpes, a parish in Swedish Ostrobothnia. The Harf homestead was, according to what was said in the 1920's, "the most beautiful house between Närpes and Vasa". Now the house is situated at a place of at natural beauty at Matmorsviken, at walking distance from the centre of Vasa. The farmstead unit of Harf from the early 19th century comprises nine (9) buildings, gathered around a square yard in accordance with the custom that was common in Ostrobothnia at least from the 1750's.

The MAIN BUILDING of Harf was probably erected in 1810 and was heightened with three layers of logs in 1843. This type of house is a "pair-house" consisting of a living room, an unheated room mostly for summer use, an entrance hall with a small room connected to it, and also a room in the gable.

The living-room and the smaller rooms are furnished according to old peasant tradition. The summer living-room is decorated as a wedding-room with fringed sheets, mirrors and silk shawls, attached to the ceiling.

The STABLE ROW consists of a stable, a hay-loft, a shed for wagons, an attic and a store-room. In the stable there are three stalls and some implements. In the wagon shed they kept the better vehicles, e.g. spring chaises and church sleighs. The room above the stable gateway served as a summer dwelling for the boys. The attic was the girls' sleeping place in summer. In the store-room under the attic the stock of food was kept, among other things tubs of meat and kegs of salt fish. This was also the place for the housewife's utensils such as clothes beaters, cheese moulds, dough-troughs, sieves, cases and coopered wooden vessels.

The LONG ROW consists of a cattle-shed, a hay-barn, a woodshed and two gateways. Between the Long Row and the Stable Row there is the timbered privy.

The cattle-shed is arranged as at Harf with pens and stalls. In the stalls there are tethering ropes of wicker. In the barn they kept hay, straw and chaff. These gateways were used as storage space for various farming implements.

The WINDMILL with a cross shaped foundation is from Harf, like the wooden storehouse. The STOREHOUSE was used as a repository for grain. There were large boxes for corn and barrels for meal.

In the SMITHY from Harf there are a forge, a pair of bellows and a blacksmiths tongs.

At the southern end of the Long Row you can see the SHEEPCOTE and the PIGSTY.

The COTTAGE is situated at the southern end of the courtyard. It is a one-living-room house from Kvevlax, used as home for the old retired couple after they had left the farm in the hands of the younger generation.

In front of the Long Row there is the well, located in the same place as at Harf.

Because of the danger of fire the THRESHING-BUILDING was placed outside the courtyard. It is from Sundom and consists, except for the kiln, of a threshing barn, a straw-barn and a space for the chaff. At the long side of the building there is a thresher.

The SMOKE SAUNA has been moved from Sundom. Except for bathing, the sauna was used e.g. for smoking meat and for flax- and hemp-dressing.

In the SEAL-HUNTING MUSEUM you will find a sealing boat and its equipment. It was used during the long hunting expeditions on the late winter ice of the Gulf of Bothnia.

The BOILING BARN originates from Sundom and was used for making saltpetre. Nitric acid was needed for producing gunpowder.

SMEDASGÅRDEN is from Purmo, Åvist, built as a single-living-room house in the late 18th century and later enlarged into a "pair-house". It was moved to the museum area in the autumn of 1990 to serve as home for the caretaker.

On the shore there is a so-called JUNGFRUDANS (= Virgin's Dance), a stone labyrinth, laid after a model from Valsörarna, a group of islands in the Vasa archipelago.

The FISHERMEN'S SAUNA for two teams of fishermen was brought from Björköby, a village on an island northwest of Vasa. In the sauna the fishermen rested during long fishing tours out at sea.

The CHALET was the summer dwelling for the daughters and maids of the house when the cattle were tended on outlying lands. The MILK SHED was used for the handling of milk, such as cheese-making and churning. Both the buildings are from Vörå.

The FISHING-SHED, a storage place for all kinds of implements connected with fishing, originates from Västervik, now a suburb of Vasa.