Gotland Museum, Visby, Sweden

The fine Gotlands Fornsal Museum provides comprehensive coverage of Visby's past. Housed in an 18th century distillery and a medieval warehouse, it holds five storeys of exhibition halls covering eight thousand years of history, as well as a good courtyard café and bookshop.

Among the most impressive sections are the Hall of Picture Stones, a collection of richly carved stones dating mostly from the 5th to 11th centuries, and the display of the Spillings Hoard – the richest of Gotland's seven hundred hoards. Found in 1999, this treasure, mostly from the Arab world, England and Germany, weighs 85 kilos. The Hall of Prehistoric Graves is equally fascinating, its glass cases displaying skeletons dating back six thousand years.

Other rooms trace the history of medieval Visby, with exhibits including a trading booth, where the burghers of Visby and foreign merchants dealt in commodities – furs, lime, wax, honey and tar – brought from all over Northern Europe. A series of tableaux brings the exhibition up to 1900, starting with Erik of Pomerania, the first resident of Visborg Castle, and leading on through the years of Danish rule, up to the island's 16th-century trading boom.

References:

Rough Guides

User Reviews

Ian Bowden (8 months ago)
A fascinating trip in history with special reference to Gotland. Truly amazing exhibits.

Ronnie Eriksson (8 months ago)
Ok museum, took about 45 minutes to go through it ( and then you spend some time walking, since it's located in two buildings and three floors), not overwhelming mutch items but descent information in Swedish and English. Save it for a rainy day ( we did) ?

Vera Ewing (9 months ago)
Visit was part of a preprogrammed vacation. Entry was smooth. Exhibits were logically presented, with space for children built in. My only complaint is the water closet, which having old pipes wasn’t quite up to the high holiday traffic.

Min Cho (9 months ago)
Cute and petite museum, but lacks part of history. It went quite well with artifacts from stone age to medieval time. But the story went totally stopped from Danish invasion. I am sure there are more stories to be told from 16th century onward. I’d want to know how Visby has gotten fame as a touristic island again. I wish to see more stories about post-medieval Gotland in a near future.

David Cha (2 years ago)
Very well laid out, interesting museum, and it felt much bigger than it looks from the outside. There is quite a variety of exhibitions, especially interesting were the picture stones and the Danish invasion of Gotland, we were here until closing time to be able to see everything. Also there is a discount for those attending the medieval fest, we didn't know but the staff noticed we had the pass bracelets on, was a nice surprise.

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

Photo from Flickr, copyright Max Streltcov

Historic Site of the week

House of Blackheads

House of the Blackheads (Melngalvju nams) is a building situated in the old town of Riga. The original building was erected during the first third of the 14th century for the Brotherhood of Blackheads, a guild for unmarried German merchants in Riga. Major works were done in the years 1580 and 1886, adding most of the ornaments.

The structure was bombed to a ruin by the Germans June 28, 1941 and the remains demolished by the Soviets in 1948. The current reconstruction was erected from 1995 to 1999. Today the House of Blackheads serves as a museum and sometimes concert hall.

Gotland Museum

Address

Details

More Information

Rating

Interesting Sites Nearby

User Reviews

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

Finest Norman castles in Italy

Exploring the History of Northern Poland

Discovering Slovenia's Historic Wonders

Historic Site of the week

House of Blackheads