Gotland History

SHORT HISTORY

Historical facts about Gotland

Visby, the capitol of Gotland, with its unique cultural offerings, has been recognised by UNESCO as part of our world heritage and was entered in the World Heritage List in 1995.

This  Fairy-tale village from the middle-ages still has the features of a Medieval town since almost 200 stone buildings from that time have been completely or partly preserved. In fact Visby is the best preserved medieval city in all of Scandinavia.  Enjoy the view of the old trading houses, with their impressive stepped gables, vaulted cellars and Gothic-inspired façades. The famous ring wall, almost 3.5 km in length, encloses the merchants’ old stone buildings, churches and adorable street network. The wall  has three main entrances and over 50 towers, and is surrounded by moats. It was built to protect this prosperous centre of trade, which during  history has been a  battlefield for Danes, Swedes, German, Russians and Pirates.

The entire island of Gotland has a fascinating history  from the stone ages to the present day, and  many important historical remains are still being found. It´s mostly known as an important centre of  merchandise. Visby was a member of the Hanseatic League which made it very wealthy during the 12th and 13th centuries,  and Visby became one of the foremost cities of the Baltic area.

Important finds of the Stone Age were skeletons from Stenkyrka and Lummelunda which are about 8,000 years old, making them among the oldest graves in Sweden.  At that time the climate was warm and moist and the winters were mild. Many of the archaeological finds in Gotland show that there was extensive trade with the Roman Empire and Germanic tribes. In general, furs, skins, salt, glass, wine and other commodities were eagerly exchanged which led to increased prosperity for the Island.

The history of Gotland can be read in the book “The Gutasaga”, that is describing the history of Gotland before its Christianization. It was written in the 13th century and survives in only a single manuscript, dating back to 1350 A.C., kept at the Swedish Royal Library of Stockholm.

The Gutasaga tells the legend of Tjelvar who arrives on the magical island which sunk every night and resurfaced everyday.  Gotland´s discoverer Tjelvar´s supposed grave is a stone ship dated to 750 BC . These types of  pagan Stone ship graves can be found all over the Island.