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.

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User Reviews

Ian Bowden (12 months ago)
A fascinating trip in history with special reference to Gotland. Truly amazing exhibits.

Ronnie Eriksson (12 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 (13 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 (13 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 Infomastern

Historic Site of the week

Visby Cathedral

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.

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