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Birka and Hovgården
| Site number: | 555 |
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| Type of site: | Cultural | |
| Date: | 9-10th century | |
| Date of Inscription: | 1993 | |
| Location: | Europe, Sweden, Stockholm County (Region of Uppland) | |
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Other languages: Czech, Dutch, Esperanto, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian-bokmål, Norwegian-nynorsk, Polish, Swedish
| Description: | Situated on Björkö Island in Lake Mälar, the Birka archaeological site was occupied in the 9th and 10th centuries. On the adjacent island of Adelsö sits Hovgården. Jointly, they frame an archaeological complex which exemplifies the intricate Viking-Age trading networks of Europe and their effect on Scandinavia’s subsequent history. St Ansgar founded Sweden’s first Christian congregation in Birka (in 831). --WHMNet paraphrase from the description at WHC Site, where additional information is available. | |
| During the Viking Age, Birka listen, on the island of Björkö (literally: "Birch Island") in Sweden, was an important trading center which handled goods from Scandinavia as well as Central and Eastern Europe and the Orient. Björkö is located in the Lake Mälaren, 30 kilometers West of Stockholm, in the municipality of Ekerö. The archaeological sites of Birka and Hovgården, on the neighbouring island of Adelsö, make up an archaeological complex which illustrates the elaborate trading networks of Viking Europe and their influence on the subsequent history of Scandinavia. "Generally regarded as Sweden's oldest town", Birka (along with Hovgården) has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993. --Wikipedia. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. | ||
| Source: | http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/555 | |
| Reference: | 1. UNESCO World Heritage Center, Site Page. | |