GOTLAND

LOCATION AND COMMUNICATION LINKS

Gotland is situated in the middle of the Baltic Sea, 50-60 miles from the Swedish mainland, and 80 miles from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Modern fast going ferries operates throughout the year and on daily basis between Visby and Nynashamn and Oskarshamn on the Wedish mainland. The crossing takes around 3 hrs. There are also regular domestic daily air flights with direct connections to Stockholm, (30 minutes) and Nonkoping. In the summer there are additional flights to Gothenburg, Malmo and Helsinki.

GEOGRAPHY

Gotland is 90 miles (125km) long, and 30 miles (52km) across at its widest point. FArö is the largest island just north of Gotland and 40 km north of FArö is Gotska Sandon. South-west of Visby are Karlsöarna (Stora and Lilla). There are steep cliffs on the northwest coast of Gotland, and along the 400 miles of coastline there are many white sandy beaches and impressive rows of sea stacks. Elsewhere the landscape is flat (the highest elevation being 270 feet) with moors and forest meadows, where a rich variety of flowers including 35 different species of orchids, are to be found. About 10,000 years ago, when Sweden and large areas of the Northern Hemisphere were covered by glaciers, the land slowly rose again in the great lakes of melted ice. The loose layers were washed away, leaving gravel and rubble stone and stacks of hard limestone rock (‘raukar’)

Compared to southern Sweden, Gotland has the highest record of sunshine days, and the least number of rainy days between April and September. Autumn is usually long and warm, and the Spring days are normally dry.

POPULATION AND MAJOR CENTRES

Gotland’s population is about 58,000, with Visby having in the region of 21,000 inhabitants, 2,000 of whom live within the well preserved city wall. In 1995 this Hanseatic town of Visby with its impressive walls, medieval town plan, buildings and ruins, was added to UNESCOS’s World Heritage List.

Gotland is Sweden’s largest rural municipality, and half the inhabitants live in the countryside. Services are good, with plenty of shops and schools, etc., and medical services can be found all over Gotland. More than a thousand farmhouses from the Viking and Medieval periods are still inhabited.

HISTORY

The period between 500 AD and the close of the Middle Ages, when the island was not part of the Kingdom of Sweden, was Gotland’s ‘Golden Age’. Gotland was a flourishing centre of European trade. Visby was an important and prosperous Hanseatic port with its narrow streets, merchant homes with stepped gables and storage cellars. The turning point of Gotland’s fortunes came in 1361 when the Danish king Valdemar Atterdag conquered the island. Today, Gotland continues to increase its contacts and exchanges with the rest of the world, and one of the aims is to make Gotland a cultural meeting place in the Baltic, throughout the year.

SPORT AND LEISURE ACTIVITIES

Living in Gotland, the travel distances are short. With more free time, sport plays a large and important part in the daily life of the Gotlandic people.

Around 170 sports centres and other facilities are spread around the island. Football and ice-hockey, together with horse riding, are the most popular sports. Many Gotlanders also like cross-country and orienteering. Gotland has its own ancient sports, namely varpa throwing and park (a ball game). Every summer the Stanga Games (or the Gotlandic Olympics) are held.

GOVERNMENT

In 1645 Gotland became Swedish. Today, the island is an administrative province, a municipality with county council responsibilities, eg. health and medical services etc. as well as a Diocese.

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Gotlanders have their own dialect and cultural heritage which is very evident in the everyday life of the people. Almost every Parish has its own choir, dance groups and folk musicians, and all year round concerts and musical events are popular and well supported. Artists of all kinds have found inspiration on Gotland, and there are numerous studios, workshops and art galleries. Many of these local industries work with textiles and lambskin from the Gotland sheep. Each year, Gotland has its famous Medieval Week in August (week 32) when Visby once again becomes a living medieval town and re-enacts the life and times of 1361.

ECONOMY

The economy of Gotland differs from that of the rest of Sweden. Far more people work within the agricultural sector, 9% versus 2.5%, while the number of people occupied within industry is lower than the national average, 15.5% versus 20% (1994).

Manufacturing industry in Gotland is dominated by small businesses, only 10 to 15 companies have more than 100 employees. The second biggest branch is the food industry with its slaughterhouse, dairies, mills, tinned vegetable plants and fishing product refineries. There are also timber and cement industries.

An average of 600,000 people visit the island each year and the tourism is of great importance for a lot of small as well as large businesses.

The single largest employer is the Municipality of Gotland with around 7,000 employees but the cutbacks in the public sector is a fact. The future for Gotland lies in developing the private service sector.

One of the events is of the Gotlandic pentathlon, which includes tossing the caber, another ancient sport which has also survived in Scotland.

Ingela Persson and Bo Frykenstam