Gotland

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**Gotland**
The provinces of Sweden with Gotland highlighted
	Land	Götaland
	Main corresponding county	Gotland County
	Area	3,145.45 km²
	Flower	Common Ivy
	Animal	Hedgehog

Gotland (help·info) is a county, province and municipality of Sweden and the largest island in the Baltic Sea. Its is 3,140 square kilometers in area, making it the largest island of the Baltic sea, though 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 of the island 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]

1 Geography
2 Geology
3 History
- 3.1 Heraldry
4 Culture
5 Notable Gotlanders
6 Dukes of Gotlandia
7 References in popular culture
8 External links
9 References

[edit] Geography

Gotland

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 (circa 22,600), is the seat of the county council and municipal council.

Gotland is located about 90 km east off 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.

[edit] Geology

Gotland is made up of sedimentary rocks, most of it limestone, but in the south also sandstone. The lime rocks have been weathered into characteristic rock formations known as rauks.

[edit] History

Picture of the Visby city wall, near the North gate

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 Gotlands 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. [2]

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 has island remained under Swedish rule.

[edit] 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".

[edit] 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 there was a writing published that contained the laws of the island, it was called "The Gotlandic law" (Guta lagh), and this work was also written in the ancient language Gutnish.

Gotland is famous for its 94 medieval^[2] 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.

[edit] 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".
Currently, famous Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman lives on Fårö, the small island directly north of Gotland Island.
Lennart Eriksson, a.k.a. Fjodor, the old punk star from Ebba Grön moved to Gotland soon after he left the band in 1982.
The Bysen (according to local legends).

[edit] Dukes of Gotlandia

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)

[edit] 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.