Time travel in the present

When visiting Gotland, you will find yourself on a journey through time. Since the Stone Age, people have resided and made their livings, made their marks and left eternal traces on the island. When you visit ruins or a stone setting from the Bronze Age, you are standing exactly where people once lived their lives and exercised influence over the future.

If you visit one of the 92 medieval churches, you will experience impressive architecture and get an idea of how important this epicentre of the parish was for the people of the Middle Ages.

Nowadays, we can easily and comfortably explore the surroundings by hopping on a ferry, bus or by just tooling around in car or on a bike. It hasn’t always been this way.

Just think of the effort of breaking large stones, transporting them, and constructing the city wall, harbour or a church. Just think of designing buildings without the help of a computer or calculator. Just think how difficult it was to traverse many miles on nearly non-existent roads, without a map or compass. If you were lucky, you had a horse. But how did you get it?

All historic sites and monuments you see on Gotland are memories of people who were on the island. They walked the same ground, drank the same water, and ate the local produce. They battled weather, wind, disease and hardships. But just as we do today, they also laughed, cried, were curious, expanded their horizons and attempted to understand the past, present and the future.

Through the centuries, people have come to Gotland for different reasons. Some have visited temporarily, others have stayed, laid their roots and made Gotland the province it is today.

Now, there are a lot of people who come to Gotland to eat good food, feel the heartbeat of the past, swim on the miles and miles of beaches, visit friends, enjoy the beauty of nature, make long-lasting memories or to escape temporarily. The journey over the Baltic is an event in itself.

The big, comfortable ferries that take you over are part of the experience. You will begin to experience the feel of Gotland in the ship’s restaurant or in a comfortable lounge chair.

We hope our brief history lesson gives you a bit of perspective and makes your trip more memorable and filled with amazing experiences.

Photo: Rederi AB Gotland archive Ship names with a history

Destination Gotland's and parent company Rederi AB's ferries are named after the history they were part of.

Through the years, ships named Thjelvar, Drotten, Visborg, Hansa and Gute have run. And naturally, Visby and Gotland. You can read more about these names and places in our exciting History of Gotland article.