RUNS AND ROSES

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 55, Issue 3941, 18 August 1937, Page 3

RUNS AND ROSES

MEDIAEVAL CITY OF VISBY. STRANGE CARVINGS IN SWEDISH CHURCH. One of the most fascinating mediaeval towns in Northern Europe is to be found on the island of Gotland, the largest of Sweden’s islands, which IS really a limestone rock rising out of the sea, 70 miles long and 22 miles broad. It lies off the east coast of Sweden, south of Stockholm, and can be reached from that city in about nine hours by steamer. During the summer months there is a daily aeroplane service. The city wall dating from the Middle Ages encloses many venerable relics from bygone centuries, and if one visualises these ancient ruins through the eyes of history pictures of commercial prosperity and wealth come before one difficult to connect with the capital city of the island to-day. Visby is of great historical importance, and was at one time the main centre of commerce between Northern Europe and the Orient. During the 11th and 12th centuries the city was the most powerful member of the Hanseatic League. It was during the rule of the Goths, centuries before the raids of the Vikings that Visby attained the height of her commercial prosperity, for this ancient, cultured Germanic race travelled extensively for trading purposes. It was also during this period that the city wall was erected, and the many remarkable churches built in various noteworthy architectural designs! Antiquarians agreed that the interesting ruins of the churches on tne island are better models of the 11th and 12th centuries than can be found anywhere else. There is a grim reminder outside the city, in the large common graves, of the success of the Danish king W'aldemar Atterdag, who conquered the city in 1361. It never regained its importance after the looting and destruction of that time.

From the shores of the island the Visby of to-day rises in a series cf terraces, and is still encircled by 3000 metres cf the old city wall, with its 37 towers. Tortuous, steep, little streets wind past picturesque houses, set in their garden ablaze with the colour of the roses blooming there in profusion. This ancient ruined city seems a veritable wilderness of roses, clustering around doorways, climbing over ruins and straggling over the old city wall.

The in the museum are too numerous to be described here, but they show what great progress in art the people made during the Middle Ages, and how it developed in a style peculiar to the island. One thinks of churches and ponies, as well as ruins and reties, in connection with Gotland, for it has long been celebrated for its graceful, diminutive ponies, and also for its 90 medieval churches. The reason for so many churches in so small an area is that when Visby was a member of the Hanseatic League many foreigners resorted to it, and each nation had its own church. It comes somewhat as a surprise to find this ancient city in Northern Europe amongst the grey mists of the Baltic Sea; it were better suited to some southern or Oriental region; even the climate is milder, and the mulberry and walnut ripen here. But this surprise and the finding of modern hotels and lovely bathing beaches in picturesque surroundings for Visby is not only an ancient townadd to the enchantment of this city of ruins and roses, whose prosperity and wealth have vanished into a legend, but not its charm.