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 Coat of Arms |
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| Geography | |
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  Gotland (Sweden Gotland)
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| Location | Baltic Sea |
| Coordinates | 57°30′N 18°33′E / 57.5°N 18.55°E |
| Area | 3,140 square kilometres (1,210 sq mi) |
| Country | |
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Sweden
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| County | Gotland County |
| Municipality | Gotland Municipality |
| Demographics | |
| Population | 57317 |
| Density | 18.25 /km2 (47.3 /sq mi) |
| Ethnic groups | Gotlander, Swedish |
Gotland (help·info) is a county, province, municipality and diocese of Sweden and the largest island in the Baltic Sea. At 3,140 square kilometers in area, it makes up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area. The region also includes the small islands of Fårö and Gotska Sandön to the north, and the tiny Karlsö Islands to the west. The inhabitants number is 57,317 (2006 SCB figure), with about 22,600 living in Visby, the main town. The main sources of income to the island are tourism, agriculture and concrete production from locally mined limestone.
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The traditional provinces of Sweden serve no administrative or political purposes, but are historical and cultural entities. In the case of Gotland, however, due to its insular position, the administrative county, län, Gotland County and the municipality, kommun, Gotland Municipality both cover the same territory as the province. Furthermore, the Diocese of Visby is also congruent with the province.
Gotland was granted its arms in about 1560, even though the island was at the time occupied by Danish forces.[1] The coat of arms is represented with a ducal coronet. Blazon: "Azure a ram statant Argent armed Or holding on a cross-staff of the same a banner Gules bordered and with five tails of the third." The county was granted the same coat of arms in 1936. The municipality, created in 1971, uses the same picture, but with other tinctures.
The Gotlandic flag displays the Gotlandic coat of arms, white on red ground, known from the 13th century in the shape of the seal of the Gotlandic Republic with the proud ram. It reads: "Gutenses signo xpistus signatur in agno". This can be translated as follows: "I (the ram) am the sign of the Gotlanders, but with the lamb symbolize Christ".
Visby is the seat of the municipality as well as the capital of the county. It has a population of approximately 22,600, around two fifths of the island's population.
Gotland is located about 90 km east of the Swedish mainland and about 130 km from the Baltic States, Latvia, being the nearest. The island Gotland is obviously just one island, but the historical province of Gotland also includes adjacent islands, which are often considered part of the Gotlandic culture:
There are several shallow lakes located near shores of the island. The biggest is Lake Bästeträsk, located near Fleringe in the northern part of Gotland.
Gotland is made up of a sequence of sedimentary rocks of a Silurian age, dipping to the south-east. The main Silurian succession of limestones and shales comprises thirteen units spanning 200-500 m of stratigraphic thickness, being thickest in the south, and overlies a 75-125 m thick Ordovician sequence.[2] It was deposited in a shallow, hot and salty sea, on the edge of an equatorial continent.[3] The water depth never exceeded 175–200 m,[4] and shallowed over time as bioherm detritus, and terrestrial sediments, filled the basin. Reef growth started in the Llandovery, when the sea was 50–100 m deep, and reefs continued to dominate the sedimentary record.[2] Some sandstones are present in the youngest rocks towards the south of the island, which represent sand bars deposited very close to the shore line.[5]
The lime rocks have been weathered into characteristic karstic rock formations known as rauks. Fossils, mainly of rugose corals and brachiopods, are abundant throughout the island; palæo-sea-stacks are preserved in places.[6]
The island is the home of the Gutar (the Gotlanders) and sites such as Ajvide show that it has been occupied since prehistory. Early on Gotland became a commercial center and the town of Visby was the most important Hanseatic city in the Baltic Sea. In late medieval time, the island had twenty district courts (tings), each represented at the island-ting, called landsting, by its elected judge. New laws were decided at the landsting, which also took other decisions regarding the island as a whole.
The Gutasaga contains legends of how the island was settled by Þieluar and populated by his descendants. It also tells that a third of the population had to emigrate and settle in southern Europe, a tradition associated with the migration of the Goths, whose name has the same origin as Gutar, the native name of the people of the island. It later tells that the Gotlanders voluntarily submitted to the king of Sweden and asserts that it is based on mutual agreements, and notes the duties and obligations of the Swedish King and Bishop in relationship to Gotland. It is therefore not only an effort to write down the history of Gotland, but also an effort to assert Gotland's independence from Sweden.
It gives Awair Strabain as the man who arranged the mutually beneficial agreement with the king of Sweden, and the event would have taken place before the end of the 9th century, when Wulfstan of Hedeby reported that the island was subject to the Swedes:
Then, after the land of the Burgundians, we had on our left the lands that have been called from the earliest times Blekingey, and Meore, and Eowland, and Gotland, all which territory is subject to the Sweons; and Weonodland was all the way on our right, as far as Weissel-mouth. [1]
The region is considered by some historians to be the original homeland of the Goths.[7]
The city of Visby and rest of the island were governed separately and a civil war caused by conflicts between the German merchants in Visby and the trading peasants on the countryside had to be put down by King Magnus III of Sweden in 1288. In 1361, Valdemar Atterdag of Denmark invaded the island. The Victual Brothers occupied the island in 1394 to set up a stronghold headquarters on their own in Visby. At last Gotland came as a fiefdom of the Teutonic Knights, awarded to them on the condition that they expel the piratical Victual Brothers from their fortified sanctuary. An invasion army of Teutonic Knights conquered the island in 1398, destroying Visby and driving the Victual Brothers from Gotland. In 1409 guaranteed Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen of the Teutonic Knights peace with the Kalmar Union of Scandinavia by selling the island of Gotland to Queen Margaret of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
The number of Arab dirhams discovered on the island of Gotland alone is astoundingly high. In the various hoards located around the island, there are more of these silver coins than any other site in Western Eurasia. The total sum is almost as great as the number that has been unearthed in the entire Muslim world. These coins moved North through trade between Rus merchants and the Abbasid Caliphate, along the Silver-Fur Road, and the money made by Scandinavian merchants would help Northern Europe, especially Viking Scandinavia and the Carolingian Empire, as major commercial centers for the next several centuries.
The Berezan' Runestone, discovered in 1905 in Ukraine, was made by a Varangian (Viking) trader named Grani in memory of his business partner Karl. It is assumed that they were from Gotland.
The authority of the landsting was successively eroded after the island was occupied by the Teutonic Order, then sold to Eric of Pomerania and after 1449 ruled by Danish governors. In late medieval times, the ting consisted of twelve representatives for the farmers, free-holders or tenants. Since the Treaty of Brömsebro in 1645, the island has remained under Swedish rule.
The medieval town of Visby has been entered as a site of the UNESCO World heritage programme. An impressive feature of Visby is the fortress wall that surrounds the old city, dating from the time of the Hanseatic League.
The inhabitants of Gotland traditionally spoke their own language, known as Gutnish. Today however, they have adapted a dialect of Swedish that is known as "Gotländska". In the 13th century, a work containing the laws of the island, called "The Gotlandic law" (Gutalagen), was published in the ancient Gutnish language.
Gotland is famous for its 94 medieval churches[8], most of which are restored and in active use. These churches exhibit two major styles of architecture: Romanesque and Gothic. The older churches were constructed in the Romanesque style from 1150–1250 A.D. The newer churches were constructed in the Gothic architectural style that prevailed from about 1250 to 1400 A.D. The oldest painting inside one of the churches on Gotland stretches as far back in time as the 12th Century.
Traditional games of skill like Kubb, Pärk, and Varpa are played on Gotland. They are part of what has become called "Gutniska Lekar", and are performed preferably on the Midsummer’s Eve celebration on the island, but also throughout the summer months. The games have widespread renown; some of them are played by people as far away as in the United States.
The knotwork design subsequently named the "Valknut" has the most attested historic instances on picture stones in Gotland, which include being on both the Stora Hammar stone and the Tängelgårda stone. There are also thousands of mysterious grooves on the island that are suspected of having been used for archaeoastronomy.
Gotland also has a rich heritage of folklore, including myths about the bysen, Di sma undar jordi, Hoburgsgubben and the Martebo lights.
Gotland competes in the bi-annual Island Games, which it hosted in 1999.
The Long Ships, or Red Orm (original title: Röde Orm), a best-selling Swedish novel written by Frans Gunnar Bengtsson, contains a vivid description of Gotland in the Viking period. A section of the book is devoted to a Viking ship setting out to Russia, stopping on its way at Gotland and engaging a pilot from the island who plays an important part in their voyage. Gotlanders of the Viking Era are depicted as city people, more sophisticated and cosmopolitan than other Scandinavians of their time, and proud of their knowledge and skills.
The crime novels of Mari Jungstedt, featuring Detective Superintendent Anders Knutas, are set on Gotland.
In the Battlefield Vietnam modification Invasion Gotland the Soviet army invades Gotland in 1977.
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Coordinates: 57°30′N 18°33′E / 57.5°N 18.55°E
Gotland [1] is a province in the Götaland region and Sweden's largest island. It is situated in the Baltic Sea outside the southeast coast of Sweden.
There are flights all year to Visby from Stockholm and Linköping. During summer, there's also flights from Gothenburg, Oslo and Ängelholm.
Some typical dishes from Gotland are:
Gotlandsdricku - local alcoholic brew
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Category: Outline articles
GOTLAND, an island in the Baltic Sea belonging to Sweden, lying between 57° and 58° N., and having a length from S. S. W. to N.N.E. of 75 m., a breadth not exceeding 30 m., and an area of 1142 sq. m. The nearest point on the mainland is 50 m. from the westernmost point of the island. With the island Farb, off the northern extremity, the Karlsne, off the west coast, and Gotska Sands, 25 m. N. by E., Gotland forms the administrative district (lan) of Gotland. The island is a level plateau of Silurian limestone, rising gently eastward, of an average height of 80 to Too ft., with steep coasts fringed with tapering, free-standing columns of limestone (raukar). A few low isolated hills rise inland. The climate is temperate, and the soil, although in parts dry and sterile, is mostly fertile. Former marshy moors have been largely drained and cultivated. There are extensive sand-dunes in the north. As usual in a limestone formation, some of the streams have their courses partly below the surface, and caverns are not infrequent. Less than half the total area is under forest, the extent of which was formerly much greater. Barley, rye, wheat and oats are grown, especially the first, which is exported to the breweries on the mainland. The sugar-beet is also produced and exported, and there are beet-sugar works on the island. Sheep and cattle are kept; there is a government sheep farm at Roma, and the cattle may be noted as belonging principally to an old native breed, yellow and horned. Some lime-burning, cement-making and sea-fishing are carried on. The capital of the island is Visby, on the west coast. There are over 80 m. of railways. Lines run from Visby N.E. to Tingstade and S. to Hofdhem, with branches from Roma to Klintehamn, a small watering-place on the west coast, and to Slitehamn on the east. Excepting along the coast the island has no scenic attraction, but it is of the highest archaeological interest. Nearly every village has its ruined church, and others occur where no villages remain. The shrunken walled town of Visby was one of the richest commercial centres of the Baltic from the 11th to the Toth century, and its prosperity was shared by the whole island. It retains ten churches besides the cathedral. The massive towers of the village churches are often detached, and doubtless served purposes of defence. The churches of Roma, Hemse, with remarkable mural paintings, Othen and Larbo may be specially noted. Some contain fine stained glass, as at Dalhem near Visby. The natives of Gotland speak a dialect distinguished from that of any part of the Swedish mainland. Pop. of lain (1 goo) 52,781.
Gotland was subject to Sweden before 890, and in 1030 was christianized by St Olaf, king of Norway, when returning from his exile at Kiev. He dedicated the first church in the island to St Peter at Visby. At that time Visby had long been one of the most important trading towns in the Baltic, and the chief distributing centre of the oriental commerce which came to Europe along the rivers of Russia. In the early years of the Hanseatic League, or about the middle of the 13th century, it became the chief depot for the produce of the eastern Baltic countries, including, in a commercial sense, its daughter colony (11th century or earlier) of Novgorod the Great. Although Visby was an independent member of the Hanseatic League, the influence of Lubeck was paramount in the city, and half its governing body were men of German descent. Indeed, Bjorkander endeavours to prove that the city was a German (Hanseatic) foundation, dating principally from the middle of the 12th century. However that may be, the importance of Visby in the sea trade of the North is conclusively attested by the famous code of maritime law which bears its name. This Waterrecht dat de Koopliide en de Schippers gemakt hebben to Visby (" sea-law which the merchants and seamen have made at Visby") was a compilation based upon the Lubeck code, the Oleron code and the Amsterdam code, and was first printed in Low German in 1505, but in all probability had its origin about 1240, or not much later (see SEA Laws). By the middle of the 14th century the reputation of the wealth of the city was so great that, according to an old ballad, "the Gotlanders weighed out gold with stone weights and played with the choicest jewels. The swine ate out of silver troughs, and the women spun with distaffs of gold." This fabled wealth was too strong a temptation for the energetic Valdemar Atterdag of Denmark. In 1361 he invaded the island, routed the defenders of Visby under the city walls (a monolithic cross marks the burial-place of the islanders who fell) and plundered the city. From this blow it never recovered, its decay being, however, materially helped by the fact that for the greater part of the next 150 years it was the stronghold of successive freebooters or sea-rovers - first, of the Hanseatic privateers called VitalienbrOdre or Viktualienbruder, who made it their stronghold during the last eight years of the 14th century; then of the Teutonic Knights, whose Grand Master drove out the "Victuals Brothers," and kept the island until it was redeemed by Queen Margaret. There too Erik (the Pomeranian), after being driven out of Denmark by his own subjects, established himself in 1437, and for a dozen years waged piracy upon Danes and Swedes alike. After him came Olaf and Ivar Thott, two Danish lords, who down to the year 1487 terrorized the seas from their pirates' stronghold of Visby. Lastly, the Danish admiral Soren Norrby, the last supporter of Christian I. of Denmark, when his master's cause was lost, waged a guerrilla war upon the Danish merchant ships and others from the same convenient base. But this led to an expedition by the men of Lubeck, who partly destroyed Visby in 1525. By the peace of Stettin (1570) Gotland was confirmed to the Danish crown, to which it had been given by Queen Margaret. But at the peace of Brdmsebro in 1645 it was at length restored to Sweden, to which it has since belonged, except for the three years 1676-1679, when it was forcibly occupied by the Danes, and a few weeks in 1808, when the Russians landed a force.
The extreme wealth of the Gotlanders naturally fostered a spirit of independence, and their relations with Sweden were curious. The island at one period paid an annual tribute of 60 marks of silver to Sweden, but it was clearly recognized that it was paid by the desire of the Gotlanders, and not enforced by Sweden. The pope recognized their independence, and it was by their own free will that they came under the spiritual charge of the bishop of Linkoping. Their local government was republican in form, and a popular assembly is indicated in the written Gotland Law, which dates not later than the middle of the 13th century. Sweden had no rights of objection to the measures adopted by this body, and there was no Swedish judge or other official in the island. Visby had a system of government and rights independent of, and in some measure opposed to, that of the rest of the island. It seems clear that there were at one time two separate corporations, for the native Gotlanders and the foreign traders respectively, and that these were subsequently fused. The rights and status of native Gotlanders were not enjoyed by foreigners as a whole - even intermarriage was illegal - but Germans, on account of their commercial pre-eminence in the island, were excepted.
See C. H. Bergman, Gotlands geografi och historic (Stockholm, 1898) and Gotlandska skildringar och minnen (Visby, 1902); A. T. SnObohm, Gotlands land och folk (Visby, 1897 et seq.); W. Moler, Bidrag till en Gotlandsk bibliografi (Stockholm, 1890); Hans Hildebrand, Visby och Bess Minnesmcirken (Stockholm, 1892 et seq.); A. Bjorkander, Till Visby Stads Aeldsta Historia (1898), where most of the literature dealing with the subject is mentioned; but some of the author's arguments require criticism. For local government and rights see K. Hegel, Steidter and Gilden im Mittelalter (book iii. ch. iii., Leipzig, 1891).
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   | Gotland - Gotland Allt om Gotland semester boende. |
| | Picture pages about life in eastern Gotland - Oestergarnslandet - Östra Gotland turistinformation Östergarnslandet Gammelgarn Östergarn Kräklingbo Ange Ala |
| | Gotland is famous for its 94 medieval churches - The Churches of Gotland |
| | Official Gotland Tourist Association - Gotland Tourist Association |
| | Select Gotland - complete guide to Gotland! - Gotland the Island in the Baltic Sea. |
| | Gotland - Välkommen till Gotland | Gotland.net |
| | Gotland Tourist Site - Välkommen till Gotland | Gotland.net |
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