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'' is a county, province and municipality of Sweden and the second largest island in the Baltic Sea after Zealand. 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. Inhabitants number 57,600 (2004 figure), with about 22,600 living in the primary city Visby. The main sources of income to the island are tourism and agriculture.
The region is considered by some historians to be, or be part of, the original homeland of the Goths.^[1]

Contents

Geography

Geology

History

Heraldry

Culture

Notable Gotlanders

Dukes of Gotland

References in popular culture

References

External links

Geography

The island province of Gotland is represented by the current administrative entity, Gotland County. This county consists of the sole municipality (''kommun'') Gotland Municipality.
Visby, with about two fifths of the island's population (approximately 22,600), is the seat of the county and municipal councils.
Gotland is located about 90 km east of the Swedish mainland and about 130 km from the Baltic States. 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:

★ Fårö

★ The Karlsö Islands (Stora Karlsö and Lilla Karlsö)

★ Gotska Sandön, a National park of Sweden.

Geology

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. Silurian Chitinozoa from Gotland, Laufeld, S., , , Universitetsforlaget, 1974, It was deposited in a shallow, hot and salty sea, on the edge of an equatorial continent.^[2] The water depth never exceeded 175–200 m,^[3] 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. 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. The Burgsvik beds, an Upper Silurian storm generated sand ridge complex in southern Gotland, Long, D.G.F., , , Geologiska Föreningens i Stockholms Förhandlingar (GFF), 1993
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.^[4]

Picture of the Visby city wall, near the North gate.

History

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. The island had in late medieval time 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 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, Waldemar 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.
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 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.

Heraldry

Gotland was granted its arms in about 1560, even though the island was at the time occupied by Danish forces. 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 Gotlandic flag displays the Gotlandic national 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".

Culture

Iron age axe from Gotland

The medieval town of Visby has been entered as a site of the UNESCO World heritage program. 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" (Guta lagen), was published in the ancient Gutnish language.
Gotland is famous for its 94 medieval^[5] churches, 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.
Gotland also has a rich heritage of folklore, including myths about the bysen, Di sma undar jordi, Hoburgsgubben and the Martebo lights.

Notable Gotlanders

★ Christopher Polhem (1661–1751), the father of Swedish mechanical physics was born in Visby. He was also called the "Archimedes of the North".

★ Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman lived on Fårö, the small island directly north of Gotland Island.

★ Former ice hockey player in the NHL Håkan Loob.

★ Lennart Eriksson, also known as '''Fjodor''', the old punk star from ''Ebba Grön'' moved to Gotland soon after he left the band in 1982.

★ Singer Susanne Alfvengren, famous in Sweden during the 1980s.

★ Babben Larsson, stand-up comedian

★ Tommy "Keno" Wahlgren

Dukes of Gotland

Since 1772, Swedish Princes have been created Dukes of various provinces. This is solely a nominal title.

★ Prince Oscar (from his birth in 1859 until his loss of succession rights in 1888)

References in popular culture

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.

References

1. See Goths and Scandza for more information on this matter.
2. Creer 1973
3. Gray, Laufield & Boucot, 1974
4. Reefs and ultrashallow environments. Guidebook to the field excursions in the Silurian of Gotland, Laufeld, Sven, , , Project Ecostratigraphy Plenary Meeting,
5. Gotland is famous for its 94 medieval churches

External links

★ Official Gotland Tourist Association

★ Select Gotland — complete guide to Gotland!

★ Picture pages about life in eastern Gotland — Oestergarnslandet

★ Gotland

★ Gotland