Frilandsmuseet (The Open Air Museum), opened in 1897 and covering 40 hectares, it is one of the largest and oldest open-air museums in the world. It is a department under the Danish National Museum. The museum features more than 100 buildings from rural environments and dating from 1650-1950. All buildings are original and have been moved piece by piece from their original location save a windmill that is still found in its original location.
The museum contains rural buildings from all regions of Denmark, including many of the small and remote Danish islands like Bornholm, Læsø. Represented are also buildings from the Faroe Islands, as well as the former Danish possessions of Southern Schleswig in Germany and Scania andHalland in Sweden. The distribution demonstrates how life has been adapted to regional living conditions and availability of materials. Buildings include a farmhouse from the island of læsø thatched with kelp
Represented in the collection are also all social living conditions, from a manor house to a poorhouse, different types of buildings like farms, mills and workshops, and numerous professions. The museum include six mills including a post mill from 1662. Some of the mills are regularly operated by a guild of volunteers.
The grounds of the museum also features 25 historic gardens and cultural landscapes and livestock of old Danish breeds. The gardens and animals are displayed in connection with the socially and geographically corresponding buildings.
References:The Château de Foix dominates the town of Foix. An important tourist site, it is known as a centre of the Cathars. Built on an older 7th-century fortification, the castle is known from 987. In 1002, it was mentioned in the will of Roger I, Count of Carcassonne, who bequeathed the fortress to his youngest child, Bernard. In effect, the family ruling over the region were installed here which allowed them to control access to the upper Ariège valley and to keep surveillance from this strategic point over the lower land, protected behind impregnable walls.
In 1034, the castle became capital of the County of Foix and played a decisive role in medieval military history. During the two following centuries, the castle was home to Counts with shining personalities who became the soul of the Occitan resistance during the crusade against the Albigensians.