Polisserie gotland
The population is 61, [ 12 ] of which about 23, live in Visby , the main town.
The island of Gotland and the other areas of the province of Gotland make up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area. The county formed by the archipelago is the second smallest by area and is the least populated in Sweden.
Gotland Island, Pearl of the Baltic, Then and Now
In spite of the small size due to its narrow width, the driving distance between the furthermost points of the populated islands is about kilometres mi. Gotland is a fully integrated part of Sweden with no particular autonomy, unlike several other offshore island groups in Europe. Historically, there was a linguistic difference between the archipelago and the mainland with Gutnish being the native language.
In recent centuries, Swedish took over almost entirely and the island is virtually monolingually Swedish in modern times. The archipelago is a very popular domestic tourist destination for mainland Swedes, with the population rising to very high numbers during summers. Some of the reasons are the sunny climate and the extensive shoreline bordering mild waters. During summer, Visby hosts the political event Almedalen Week , followed by the Medieval Week , further boosting visitor numbers.
In winter, Gotland usually remains surrounded by ice-free water and has mild weather. Gotland has been inhabited since approximately BC. The name of Gotland is closely related to that of the Geats and Goths. The island was the home of the Gutes , and sites such as the Ajvide Settlement show that it has been occupied since prehistory.
Welcome to Gotland, Sweden | Where Viking Rune Stones Meet Celluloid Dreams
This is consistent with the spread of agricultural peoples from the Middle East at about that time. 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 Gutes , the native name of the people of the island.
It later tells that the Gutes voluntarily submitted to the king of Sweden and asserts that the submission was based on mutual agreement, and notes the duties and obligations of the Swedish King and Bishop in relationship to Gotland. It gives Awair Strabain as the name of the man who arranged the mutually beneficial agreement with the king of Sweden; the event would have taken place before the end of the ninth 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. 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 at 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. The Berezan' Runestone , discovered in 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 Mästermyr chest , an important artefact from the Viking Age , was found in Gotland.
Gotland Island, Pearl of the Baltic, Then and Now – SGSC
On 16 July , the world's largest Viking silver treasure, the Spillings Hoard , was found in a field at Spillings farm northwest of Slite. Early on, Gotland became a commercial center, with the town of Visby the most important Hanseatic city in the Baltic Sea. New laws were decided at the landsting, which also took other decisions regarding the island as a whole. 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 peasants they traded with in the countryside had to be put down by King Magnus III of Sweden in At last, Gotland became a fief of the Teutonic Knights , awarded to them on the condition that they expel the piratical Victual Brothers from their fortified sanctuary.
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 ruled by Danish governors. Since the Treaty of Brömsebro in , the island has remained under Swedish rule.
2 Days In Gotland, Sweden: Discover the Largest Island in the Baltic Sea
John of Jerusalem , who had been expelled from Malta in , but the Order rejected the offer since it would have meant renouncing their claim to Malta. The Order never regained its territory, and eventually it reestablished itself in Rome as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Under command of Nikolai Andreevich Bodisko 1, Russians took the city of Visby without any combat or engagement, and occupied the island.