1931 The Sacking of Visby Gotland Sweden Medieval Battle 5-Page Vintage Article

Description: Yes we combine shipping for most multiple item purchases.Add multiple items to your cart and the combined shipping total will automatically be calculated. 1931 The Sacking of Visby Gotland Sweden Medieval Battle 5-Page Vintage Article Original, Vintage Magazine articlePage Size: Approx. 10" x 13" (25 cm x 32 cm) each pageCondition: Good THE SACKING OF VISBYRecreating a Medieval Battle—Archeological Discoveries at GotlandA PANORAMA OF MEDIEVAL VISBYCourtesy Swedish State HallwaysThe thirteenth-century walls which protected Visby in the days of its prosperity are still standing, but the city itself covers only half the area itformerly occupied. The Cathedral of St. Mary, seen in the center of this picture, is the only one of its churches still used for services. The otherfifteen churches which it boasted in former times have fallen into ruins, two of which are seen in the foreground.VALDEMAR COLLECTS THE TREASURES OF VISBYIn the year 1361, Visby was besieged and sacked by the Danish king, Valdemar Atterdag, who slaughtered eighteen hundred peasants before the gatesof the town. The burghers, who thought they were safe behind their walls, offered no resistance and had to pay a heavy tribute. For three days tireDanish king is said to have sat on his dais watching the citizens of Visby pour their treasures into large vats.VISBY IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURYWhen Visby was one of the great trading centers of the Hanseatic League in thethirteenth century, its wealth was proverbial. “The pigs,” said an old ballad,“eat out of silver troughs, and the women spin with golden distaffs.”LXST summer, Visby’s past was vividly recreated for me. Onrprevious visits. I had steeped myself in the lore of the landand walked through Sweden’s walled city as though it werea museum piece. On Visby’s streets mythical events had takenplace. Her legends, like the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales,were peopled with porcelain figures: picturesque, poetic, but alto-gether fantastic. Last summer, all that was changed for I cameon archeologists at work. Just outside the walls of the city, atKorsbetningen, scientists are digging into the past to enrich ourknowledge of history.I was up early one morning last summer on the little steamerthat takes one overnight from Nynashamn on the Swedish main-land to Visby on the island of Gotland. The sun just rising fromthe Baltic and the mist that lay over the sea in the distance broughttwo legends to my mind. The old Guta Saga tells of Thjelvar’sdiscovery of a land that sank with the rising of the sun only toreappear at night. It was easy to understand the origin of thislegend when a mist veiled the sun and hid the island of Gotland.The ruby light of the sun on the waves reminded me of theother story. In his sacking of the city of Visby in 1361 ValdemarAtterdag is alleged to have wrenched two giant carbuncles fromthe rose windows of St. Nikolaus Church. The jewels were sobrilliant that sailors were said to have steered their ships by theglow from those windows. In a storm that overtook the Danishking and his fleet, some of the treasure ships were wrecked. Thegiant carbuncles sank, but even today they shine from the bottomof the sea.I approached Visby thinking of the olden days without a senseof their reality. The mist had cleared and I could see the graywall rambling around the edges of the blue waters of the Baltic.The wall shut in houses with red roofs half-hidden by agedivy and branches of younger trees. Here and there rose theroofless ruins of the twelfth- and thirteenth-century churches:St. Catherine, St. Drotten, St. Nikolaus, St. Hans. There werethe towers of St. Maria Cathedral, the only one of the sixteenchurches of medieval times that has, thanks to restoration, with-stood the ravages of time.Beyond the wall to the north, I could see the bare rocks of thecliff on which Visby is built and the three pillars where pirateswere hanged. Inevitably one’s eyes come back to the wall. Itried to count the thirty-eight towers that remain of the scoresthat stood when Visby was in her glory. I imagined sentinels,on the lookout for pirates,walking beneath the woodensheds that used to cover thewall. Perhaps those sen-tinels had heard the criesof Unghanse’s daughter,the unfortunate maiden wholoved and aided Valdemar,and who was buried alivein a tower. I could see thattower clearly------Jungfru-tornet.And there was Visby, mymuseum city, needing onlya glass case to make it com-plete. However, Visby isolder than most museumpieces. Relics proVe- thatthe land on which it standswas inhabited by men ofthe Stone Age. Perhapsmen lived there when theBaltic was still a fresh-water lake. Certainly, itwas of great importance as a trade center when mid-Europe wasstill primitive, for coins of Arabia, Rome and the Anglo-Saxonshave been dug up there. The name itself, Vi meaning place ofsacrifice and By meaning settlement, and monuments similar tothe Druid stones of England and the menhirs of Brittany, scat-tered over the island, speak of antiquity.Tn later, historic days, Visby, the “eye of the Baltic.” grewinto a great power. It was a trading station for merchants ontheir way to Novgorod and the Orient. Greek coins of the periodof Emperor Anastasius(491-518 a.d.) have beenfound thtye. Chroniclerstell of the Crusaders stop-ping at Visby on their wayto the Holy Land.During the thirteenthcentury Visby was an im-portant member of theHanseatic League. TheCode of Visby was mari-time law for the League.This period of great pros-perity was marked by thebuilding of over one hun-dred fine churches in thecity and throughout theisland.Toward the end of thecentury Lubeck gained overher ancient rival and Visbylost some of its importance.However, it was still one ofthe richest cities in theworld in 1361. when Valdemar Atterdag, led on, according tolegend, by accounts of “swine eating from silver troughs andwomen spinning on golden distaffs,” raided Visby and left withships laden with treasure. Visby never entirely recovered fromthat attack. For the next century, sea rovers, pirates, and theHanseatic privateers, the “Victuals Brothers.” and later, Olafand Ivar Thott, the Captain Kidds of the northern seas, madetheir strongholds there.In 1525, Lubeck attacked and burned her ancient rival. The... 13147-AL-3110-46

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