Gotland Museum

About

The Gotland Museum (Swedish: Gotlands museum) (previously known as Länsmuseet på Gotland or Gotlands Fornsal) in Visby, Sweden, is the county museum of Gotland. It was founded by the Friends of Gotland's Antiquity society in 1875, at the initiative of Pehr Arvid Säve. The museum owns a number of houses and farms on Gotland, some of which are used as museums. It also has a publishing house for books on subjects related to the island's heritage.

The museum's collections consists of about 400,000 objects, which are stored in three depositories. The largest of these is the Magasin Visborg outside Visby and since 2014, this storehouse is open to the public.

The collections are divided into these sections:

- Collection of cultural history — Clothes, textiles, household items, weapons, agricultural object.

- Archeological collection — Objects representing Gotland's history from 7,000-year-old stone axes to Medieval seals. Finds from excavations on the island.

- Collection of natural history — Fossils, herbariums, butterflies, mounted animals, skeletons. The objects in the collections have in most cases been donated to the museum by individuals, single items or entire estates. While some of the art has been bought by the museum, the art collection also comprises art from the Brucebo Foundation, the Heritage Society and the Gotland Municipality, held in trust by the museum.

The most prominent permanent exhibitions in the museum are the Picture Stone Hall, Spillings Hoard and 1361 - Battle for Gotland, about the Danish invasion of Gotland in 1361, led by Valdemar Atterdag resulting in the Battle of Mästerby and the Battle of Visby.

The museum was founded in 1875, by the Friends of Gotland's Antiquity society ( Gotlands fornvänner ) at the initiative of Pehr Arvid Säve. The purpose was to collect historic artifacts and everyday objects connected to Gotland as well as documenting immaterial aspects of life on the island.

Through the years, the function of the museum has remained the same. The museum has grown steadily as the collections increased. Houses, farms and other buildings have been left to the museum in wills and through donations, and the number of members in the society have increased from a handful to over 2,400 in 2015.

In 2011, the museum initiated a networking project with other museums in countries around the Baltic Sea.

The Friends of Gotland's Antiquity society was founded on 16 October 1874. The initiator was P A Säve and the purpose of the society was to collect all kind of objects that had been used in everyday life in the past on Gotland and preserve them for future generations. Folktales, songs, traditions, craft skills and other aspects of life on the island, past and present, were to be written down in books, journals and notes, and collected in an archive.

The following year, on 22 May at five o'clock in the afternoon the society had a meeting where it was decided to rent some kind of premises for the collections. A "Hall of Antiquities" (a Fornsal ) was to be created and opened to the public. The society first rented a hall in the old school for girls close to the Visby Cathedral, and in the beginning of July 1880, the old brännvin distillery at Strandgatan was bought by the society to serve as the first museum. The first house is now known as the Picture stone Hall ( Bildstenshallen ).

As of 2015 [update], the Friends of Gotland's Antiquity owns the entire block surrounding the Picture stone Hall which is the modern museum. The society owns several farms and houses that are also part of the museum. Membership in the society is open to anyone for a fee.

The Friends of Gotland's Antiquity society was founded on 16 October 1874. The initiator was P A Säve and the purpose of the society was to collect all kind of objects that had been used in everyday life in the past on Gotland and preserve them for future generations. Folktales, songs, traditions, craft skills and other aspects of life on the island, past and present, were to be written down in books, journals and notes, and collected in an archive.

The following year, on 22 May at five o'clock in the afternoon the society had a meeting where it was decided to rent some kind of premises for the collections. A "Hall of Antiquities" (a Fornsal ) was to be created and opened to the public. The society first rented a hall in the old school for girls close to the Visby Cathedral, and in the beginning of July 1880, the old brännvin distillery at Strandgatan was bought by the society to serve as the first museum. The first house is now known as the Picture stone Hall ( Bildstenshallen ).

As of 2015 [update], the Friends of Gotland's Antiquity owns the entire block surrounding the Picture stone Hall which is the modern museum. The society owns several farms and houses that are also part of the museum. Membership in the society is open to anyone for a fee.

The museum consists of the main building Fornsalen at Standgatan in Visby, Gotlands Konstmuseum (the Art Museum), Kapitelhusgården ( Chapter House Manor), Kajsartornet fängelsemuseum (Kajsar Tower Prison Museum), Kattlunds, Petes and Norrbys.

The main building of the museum is as of 2015 [update], the entire block of buildings surrounded by Strandgatan, Mellangatan, Brännerigränd and Dubbens gränd. The buildings are placed around a central court yard, from which the different parts of the museum are accessed. The block is divided into two sections, the Museet 1 and Museet 2. These sections are made up of six houses, some of which are made from two or more older houses, where walls or parts of the buildings have been reused or incorporated into the newer ones.

In the Middle Ages, the block was in the part of the town which was the center of commerce and trade. At that time the square-shaped block had numerous smaller buildings divided into three block by two narrow alleys running in an east-westerly direction. A number of the foundations for these old houses are still intact under ground. This structure was used until 1697, when the southern alley disappeared and the building plots were redistributed. In 1777, the Swedish government bought the whole block to use as one of its brännvin distilleries ( Kronobränneri ). At that time the block consisted of 18 buildings of varying size. These were partly demolished, rebuilt, added to or converted, giving the block its present layout. The system with these types of distilleries did not last long and in 1813, part of the block was sold to a merchant and starting from 1830, the rest of the houses were used as storage for weapons and ammunition by the Swedish army.

After having bought the first house, Fornsalen, for their exhibition in 1880, the Gotlands fornvänner society continued to buy and add buildings within the block and extend the museum. In 1930, they had bought and incorporated the entire block into the Gotland Museum. The buildings are now linked with each other to accommodate the exhibitions and administration of the museum. During the 20th century, additional stairwells and elevators have been installed. The court yard was renovated and the main entrance to the museum was moved from Standgatan to the yard during the conversion in 2007.