VIKING GRIT STILL runs strong throughout Gotland. From medieval sailors buried beneath the cobblestone streets in Visby to the ruins of Norse shipyards where longboats were built 1,000 years ago, ancient maritime lore suffuses the island. The old walled community once thrived on trading squirrel skins and beeswax, and to this day small fishing vessels make regular runs between the isle and the mainland, a distance of about 90km.
“The people of Gotland have always made their living by the sea,” says Johan Hallén, who grew up here, renovated his first boat at the age
