The Medieval Week on Gotland

Medieval Week is the medieval festival that spreads throughout Visby, and the island of Gotland, in the beginning of August every year. It includes a wide range of activities, sights, lectures, markets, medieval restaurants and bars and above all, a large, warm and welcoming community for all ages. Everyone is welcome, in medieval or modern clothes, Vikings, Pirates, 14^th century countryfolk, 16^th century mercenaries as well as ordinary tourists.

Since 1984, Medieval Week festival has offered festivities, a sense of community and nurtured learning and fun for all ages. Every year, people from all over the world travel here to Visby to participate and marvel at the magic, imagination, love, history and community that make Medieval Week on Gotland the world’s foremost festival of its kind. Medieval week is very much about parties and friends but learning and remembering is also a central part of our vision. We cherish the memory of the Battle of Visby and that of the Ajmunds bridge in Mästerby, a decisive field battle during Valdemar Atterdag’s invasion of Gotland in July 1361.

The medieval week’s mythical eight days, every year in August, has come to mean a lot to many and are deeply rooted in our collective heart and memory. No one’s medieval week is the same as someone else’s however, and there is always something new to discover and experience. Medieval Week strives for a welcoming environment where everyone is given the opportunity to explore and experience their very own interpretation of the brightest days of the Middle Ages.

You hear the murmur of a market, children laughing, music and the sound of drums and bells filling the air. You can smell roasted almonds, smoked foods and candied apples.

Medieval Week is the largest single organizer of events that attract over 100,000 visits annually to Visby’s ruins, city wall, park areas, Gotland’s Museum and historical restaurants and won the Grand Tourism Award in 2020 and was again nominated in 2021. With a sustainability work in three focus areas – Environment, Gender Equality and Security, we work together as a whole for a medieval week where everyone can feel welcome and safe, now and always.

The medieval week on Gotland 2022 focuses on both the historically correct and the historically imaginative: We especially lift the people of the historical battles of 1361 and let the story of the invasion gild the fantasy theme, where the horrors of war open the door to other worlds. Through Battle of Wisby, with field camps and field battles, the historical event is recreated as we know it through historical research. But what did the people see in the shadows of the narrowest alleys and out in the woods at night? Come along and discover what the worlds of the Middle Ages have to offer when the only limit is your own imagination.

Welcome to the Medieval Week August 4-11 2024