Vitlycke Museum

The Vitlycke Museum near Tanumshede in Sweden explores the history of the Bronze Age culture of the region and serves as a good starting point for those seeking to explore the Tanum Rock Carvings – a collection of hundreds of Bronze Age rock carvings found in the area.

Vitlycke Museum history

There has been a museum at Vitlycke since 1976 when the Tanum Rock Carving Institute was set up as a joint project by Bohuslän Museum, the National Heritage Board, Uppsala University and the Municipality of Tanum. The idea was to connect a research institute with a public museum. Later the Institute changed its name to the Tanum Rock Carving Museum, which contained exhibitions, a cafe and, since 1986, also a reconstructed Bronze Age settlement.

In 1996 the old museum premises were demolished to make room for Vitlycke Museum, designed by the firm Carl Nyréns Arkitektkontor and the new museum was completed in 1998. The new building was financed by the Bohus County Council, Bohuslän Museum, the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning, the Västra Götaland County Employment Board, the Västra Götaland County Administrative Board and the Municipality of Tanum.

The museum also includes a recreation of a Bronze Age farm with a number of exhibits exploring domestic life of the period. The farm has reconstructions of two Viking longhouses, one from the Old and one from the New Bronze Age.  The museum is across the road from the Tanum Rock Carvings , which is one of the largest and most accessible of the rock carvings in the area.

Vitlycke Museum today

The museum offers public educational activities aimed at schools, tourist groups and individual visitors, by using our exhibition and our Bronze Age farm and by guiding our visitors out to the images in the landscape.

Vitlycke Museum forms part of a broader context together with several strategic partners, including the regional development resources of the Västra Götaland Region, the county administration, the Municipality of Tanum, the Western Sweden Tourist Board, Gothenburg University and others.

Region Västra Götaland runs Vitlycke Museum, while the Tanum World Heritage is run by the county administrative board, Region Västra Götaland and the Municipality of Tanum.

Handheld digital guides to the rock carvings are available from the museum.

Getting to Vitlycke Museum

Buses run regularly from Tanumshede to Hoghem which is a short walk away.