Travel Guide Visby

Known as the City of Roses, the medieval city is nestled between powerful and austere walls, which enclose it on its three landward sides and part of the waterfront. Born around the year 1000, and initially centered around its harbor, Visby expanded eastward by climbing up to the heights, before in 1300 the fear of foreign invasions and peasants' uprisings dictated to the local bourgeoisie the construction of these high gray stone walls, to which medieval turrets and heavy gates came to bring a semblance of fantasy. Today, it is to the east, at the foot of the ramparts, or to the west, near the beach and the marina, that the visitor will find one of the four available parking lots where he can leave his vehicle. The city, whose circumference does not exceed four kilometers, is now almost exclusively devoted to pedestrian strolls, along the narrow and winding cobblestone streets, sometimes descending steeply towards the sea.A sublime medieval city. As you walk through this maze of one or two-story houses with walls covered with white, pink, yellow or blue plaster, which a pure and sometimes even sparkling light revives, you think of the Mediterranean splendor. There, at the bend of an 18th century bourgeois house, or a porch surrounded by giant honeysuckle, you will smell the spicy scent of rose beds, heralding secret gardens. Having reached the narrow Vårdklockegatan on the heights, you will dominate with your eyes to the sea this strongly intertwined set of tiled roofs, from which emerge the three black bell towers of the white Domkyrkan Sainte-Maria, the only surviving church of medieval times which is still functional. Suddenly, on a sloping lawn barely concealed by a heavy chestnut tree, you can see a carpet of large islands of ruins, the remains of the ten churches left abandoned in the 17th century. Their white stones were used as material for the construction of Visby's middle-class homes. Further on, attracted by the melodious sounds of a concert, you will sit at the terrace of a café, on the edge of a paved square. Today, while the city has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in order to avoid real estate speculation and the resulting housing shortage, only permanent residents of the island are allowed to buy a house within the walls.