Visby’s Ringwall

Monday started with a visit to Gotland’s Fornsalen (Antiquities Museum) to look at picture stones from 100-800 AD and some of the skatter (buried treasures) that contain mostly silver coins, silver jewelry, and silver bars that were buried by Gotland tradesmen and wealthy Vikings in the 800s to 1200s. About 700 such skatter have been found on Gotland, testimony to its financial well-being and importance. Because of its location, Gotland became a trading center quite early in history, where furs and honey from Finland and Russia were traded with cities in northern Europe.

One of the highlights of this was the “Spillings Hoard”.  In 1998, a farmer plowing his field found some Viking-era coins.  The next year, a full investigation turned up 67 kilograms (148 pounds!!) of silver, in the form of bracelets, coins from all over the known world, and “bit silver”.  This was apparently the cash supply for a wealthy trader, stashed and somehow forgotten.  Sorry, no pics from the museum, but if you Google “Spillings images”, you can get an idea.

We then took a walking tour with a local guide, a lifelong native of Gotland and former school teacher, Gertrude Lyrung, 80+ years old.  She apologized that she needed to use a walker, since she suffered a stroke last Easter….  We can only hope to be so “with it” when we have attained that age!  She was well-informed, spoke very clearly, and obviously knew her stuff, as she welcomed interruptions and questions.

After dinner we stopped for some of Gotland’s famous ice cream…if you’re ever here, try the saffron!  And then we took a walk along Visby’s Ring Wall. It was built in the late 1200s, not for defense against a foreign enemy, but rather as a means of collecting tolls from farmers, which led to civil war between Visby city-folk and Gotlandic farmers, in which the farmers appear to have lost.

This ring wall is Europe’s best-preserved city ring wall from early middle ages. We will let some of Lars’ nice pictures speak about the ring wall.  27 of the original 29 towers remain, and the wall itself was built higher, wider and stronger several times.  One of these “improvements” added the so-called “saddle towers” that sort of straddle the wall.  And it had 3 moats, filled not with water but with a forest of sharpened poles.  A segment of the moats is still visible, though nowadays overgrown with a mass of plant-life.

And then it was time to go “home” and watch the 10 o’clock sunset.