Medieval Week on Gotland

Our visit to Gotland happened to coincide with the medieval week that takes place here in August every year. For the entire week people come from all over Sweden to participate in acting out and living as they did during the middle ages. Visby on Gotland is the perfect city for this with it's rich history and the city wall that still stands proud. The settings are great for something like this.


All around Visby you could see people dressed the way people were dressed during the middle ages. These costumes are quite elaborate. I recon those wearing them have dedicated quite some time and work making and sewing them. I admired the costumes but I don't have any kind of longings to participate in this myself or walking around like this.

We visited the large open market that was taking place. These glazed apples just looked super delicious. Both humans and bees seemed equally drawn to them. The sugar coated roasted almonds just smelled soooo good!

All kinds of items and good were sold on the market.Both food, drink, soaps, clothes, furs, swords, all linked to the medieval times ofcourse.

Entire wild boars were BBQ:ed like these ones.

You could even get yourself a bath or a foot scrub the way it was done during the medieval times.

Visby is a remarkable city in many ways. It has managed to survive and been left intact during hundreds of years so historically it is very well preserved. Besides the city wall there are a number of old impressive church ruins left standing in the city.

As me and C stayed an extra day we were here for the last day of the medieval week which ended with a large banquette and celebration. Out in the big town square tables were set and food was cooked in food stalls. Me and C had dinner at one of the restaurants facing the town square. As we enjoyed our dinner we got to see all the festivities and events taking place here. There was dancing, music, people swallowing fire. It was very entertaining.