Gotland

Volume 2 of the series ‘Coniunctiones – Contributions of the Network of the Hanseatic Cities’ Art and Culture’ presents the results of the 2015 conference in Visby held by the Böckler-Mare-Balticum Foundation and Uppsala University in cooperation with the Network of the Hanseatic Cities’ Art and Culture. The articles by Swedish, German, Baltic, Polish, and Russian researchers shed light on Gotland’s transnational character, while historians, art historians, archaeologists, ethnologists, and conservators tackle transdisciplinary questions. Gotland safeguards an overwhelming multitude of superbly preserved and high-quality objects of its artistic and cultural history. Its central position in the Baltic Sea region made Gotland an important trading spot even before the Hanseatic League. From the 12th century onwards, the island served as the departure point for an association of merchants travelling to Novgorod together. Gotland thus became a centre of exchange not merely for the area around the Baltic Sea, but for the entire region of Hanseatic trade.