Tag Archives: Gotland Museum

The Road to Diamond, Day 296: Picture Stones and A Watchful Wolf

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Posted by on in animal and plant life, collaborating, Education, Historical, Inspiration, Social, Spiritual, Striving, Travel

September 19, 2025, Visby, Gotland-

Today’s festivities will be shared in two parts, as some photos are on the iPhone gallery and the cable for my phone doesn’t quite connect to the Lenovo.

Sharing is caring, regardless, so let’s take a look at Gotland Museum. There are four floors, each with two or three galleries. Floor 0 is where we enter, pay admission, check out the bookstore and spend time with Gotland’s unique Picture Stones.

Many picture stones were originally painted with red, yellow or blue pigment. Most have lost the pigmentation, over the centuries.

The standing stones are all over Gotland and its northern offshore sibling, Faro (not to be confused with the resort city in Portugal’s Algarve). See gotlandpicturestones.se

Here are a few scenes of that gallery.

This came from the early Christian era, most likely commissioned by someone looking to protect his farm.
The pinwheel also is a
harbinger of good fortune.
This tells the story of a horse and a deer.

This one has a sensor, which fills in the colours when someone approaches.

There are several others in the gallery, but here is a tableau of some smaller reproductions from around Gotland.

Up to Floor #1, we find The geology of Gotland. It, like the rest of Scandinavia, was once buried under ice. As the glaciers retreated, the Baltic Sea filled in, while islands like Oland, Aland, Bornholm and Gotland remained above water, being the tops of small hills.

Sandstone and limestone predominate the gently rising, but mostly flat landscape. There are some forests, but Gotland is still mostly farmland.

Floors 2 and 3 feature the history of Gotland and stories told by local children and youth, respectively. The historical part begins with a Norse creation story. Odin, representing the Sun, brings the world to life. He and other deities guide people in the ways of right living. All the while, the ravenous Wolf watches and waits. At the end time of Ragnarok, the Wolf will swallow Odin.

On that cheerful note, the story of Gotland proceeds, through its early days of increasingly successful farming, the Viking Era, Hanseatic League and incorporation into the Kingdom of Sweden.

It was during the Hanseatic period that the wall encircling Visby was built. At the East Gate, all peasants wanting to sell produce at Visby’s market had to pay a toll. Those trying to sell elsewhere were fined pr flogged. This was the stricture of the manorial system.

On the third floor, there are both paintings and recorded stories by Gotland residents.

The painting above shows the juxtaposition of hillside Visby with the sea.

The museum was founded in 1875, by Per Arvid Save( pronounced SAH- vay) and the Friends of Gotlanf, with the aim of preserving the island’s rich heritage and sharing it with the world. Dr. Save encouraged the farmers and fishers of Gotland to safeguard the picture stones they found about their homes and nearby lands.

Next, I will visit the ruined churches of Visby’s centrum, with the help of my laptop.