My Visit to Visby - by Jane Keightley
“Visby, where’s that”? Up until my visit to Gdansk to attend the 2024 International Hansetag I had not even heard of the island of Gotland let alone its beautiful medieval capital of Visby.
Whilst enjoying myself in Gdansk I had found out that Visby was where the next Hansetag was to take place, so I vowed to find out more about it.
In a nutshell Gotland is a Swedish island in the Baltic Sea only a quick ferry ride or flight from Stockholm and Visby is UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its perfectly preserved medieval walls. However, I wanted to find out more so when I was lucky enough to get sat near the Visby contingent at a Tourism event I got chatting to them. Of course, they were passionate about their hometown and told me all about the Medieval Festival that they hold in the summer where hordes of people come over from Stockholm to relax. They also were very proud of their Hanseatic history and were happy to be hosting the Hansetag in 2025. However, it was the Truffle Festival that piqued my interest. I have been to Italy many times and been on quite few truffle hunts and to the Alba White Truffle Fair, so I was fascinated to find that there were truffles in Gotland.
I decided to try and get a free press trip to Visby to attend the Truffle Festival by pitching to various foodie magazines and luckily, I got a commission from Sainsbury’s magazine.
My first impressions as I was driven through the medieval walls to the hotel were of narrow streets, ruined churches and magnificent medieval warehouses.
The next morning, I had an appointment to meet a guide to take me round Gotland’s History Museum. Being the history nerd that I am I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Exhibits include Viking silver hoards, picture stones found nowhere else in the world, medieval armour from the Danish invasion in 1361 and a whole warehouse looking pretty much as it would have done when Hanseatic merchants traded there. I then was taken on a tour of the town and finally got my bearings as it had been dark when I had arrived the night before. Visby is small and you can explore it very easily on foot (driving cars round Visby can be a bit hairy as I discovered the next day).
Much as I loved the history, I must mention the food. The breakfasts are huge buffets with a great selection to choose from and I kept returning to the café at the history museum for my lunch as the food was so good and a reasonable price. Of course, I was there for the Truffle Festival and after a truffle ceremony at Visby Cathedral we all headed back to the Clarion Hotel for a six-course truffle banquet. All courses were made with truffles even the dessert and different wines and beers were brought out to complement each course. This was a great treat for a truffle lover like me, but I was not so keen on the truffle themed dessert.
I was given a hire car to use to explore the rest of the island. I am not keen on driving abroad, but this was a pleasant experience. Being a little island in the middle of the Baltic Sea in November it was really quiet and suited me perfectly. .The landscape is flat and the roads mainly straight The area that I really loved was the Folhammer nature reserve where the beaches are full of limestone sea stacks known as Rauker. I returned the car back all in one piece after getting lost in the narrow medieval streets of Visby.
I found the people of Gotland very friendly and helpful and all of them spoke perfect English. They are all very proud of their history and heritage and were really interested when I talked to them about my Hanseatic links and where I was from.
I would have loved to have returned for the Hansetag but I am in Florence at that time, but I am planning to return to Visby when the Medieval Festival is on at some point in the future.
