Story
The story of Fårö
Mainland Swedes sometimes think the name Fårö comes from får, the Swedish word for sheep, because there are so many sheep on the island. But the name more likely means 'the island one has to travel to', from a word stem linked to travelling. Fårö lies just north of Gotland across a narrow strait, served by two car ferries, and it even has its own dialect, Fårömål.
For decades the island was closed to outsiders: until the 1990s, foreigners were barred from Fårö and the north of Gotland because of a military installation, and Andrei Tarkovsky was refused permission to film The Sacrifice here. Another director made it his home. Ingmar Bergman lived and died on Fårö and shot several films here, among them Persona, and the Bergman Week honours him every June.
Along the coast, look for rauks, rock formations shaped by erosion in the Ice Age and found only on Gotland and Fårö. At Digerhuvud hundreds of them line the shore, the largest stack area in Sweden.
This story is compiled from Wikipedia and other open sources; dates and numbers are checked against the source. The text is shared under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. Source ↗
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More highlights in Visby (Gotland)
- Saint Catherine in VisbyRuin of the church built in Visby for the Franciscan convent founded in 1233.
- Visby Botanical GardenBotanical garden by the sea in Visby, laid out in 1855 by the DBW society.
- Lummelunda caveThe Lummelunda Cave is located in a nature reserve at Lummelunda north of Visby on Gotland, Sweden. The explored part of this karst cave is almost 4.5 km (2.8 mi), making it one of the longest caves in Sweden.
- AlmedalenAlmedalen is a park in the Swedish city of Visby on the island of Gotland. It is well known in Sweden as the central site of the annual Almedalen Week. In medieval times the area, just outside the city walls was the city harbour.
- Bunge MuseumOpen-air museum a few kilometres west of Fårösund on Gotland, founded in 1907 and showing past rural life.
- Visby CathedralVisby Cathedral, formally Visby Saint Mary's Cathedral (Visby Sankta Maria domkyrka), is a cathedral within the Church of Sweden, seat of the Bishop of Visby. It lies in the centre of Visby, the main town on the Swedish island Gotland.