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Founded: 19th centuryCategory: Miscellaneous historic sites in Sweden
Historical period: The Age of Enlightenment (Sweden)
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The small Grisslehamn village is today a well-preserved sample of 19th century architecture and popular attraction for daily trips. The name Grisslehamn was first mentioned in a document from 1376 about the mail route between Sweden and Finland. This Grisslehamn was located some 20 km south of today's location. In the mid-18th century, most of the old village was destroyed in a fire, and it was decided to move Grisslehamn to its current location to make the mail route shorter. Conveying mail by row boat from Sweden to Åland, from whence it was transported to the Finnish mainland, was, together with fishing, one of the most important sources of income for the inhabitants of Grisslehamn and other parts of Roslagen for a long time, until steam ships took over the mail routes in the early 20th century.
During the Finnish War in 1809 a small unit of Russian cossacks attacked to Grisslehamn over the frozen Gulf of Bothnia. In the battle 80 Swedish soldiers surrended and several were killed.
Today there are several buildings dating from the 19th century, like the toll station and old barracks. The post office was built in 1755 and the chapel in 1909.
References:Visby Cathedral (also known as St. Mary’s Church) is the only survived medieval church in Visby. It was originally built for German merchants and inaugurated in 1225. Around the year 1350 the church was enlarged and converted into a basilica. The two-storey magazine was also added then above the nave as a warehouse for merchants.
Following the Reformation, the church was transformed into a parish church for the town of Visby. All other churches were abandoned. Shortly after the Reformation, in 1572, Gotland was made into its own Diocese, and the church designated its cathedral.
There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor.