In 1972, UNESCO decided to establish a World Heritage Convention. The intention was to preserve natural and cultural environments that are considered particularly valuable to all of humanity. The states that signed the convention were committed to protect their important cultural and natural environments and to respect objects in other states. There are more than 900 world heritage sites in the world. Sweden signed the convention in 1985 and of now there are fifteen world heritage sites in Sweden.

The reasons why Visby is named a World Heritage Site are:

• The remains of more than 200 magazines and merchant houses
• A dozen medieval church ruins
• A well-preserved medieval street network
• A virtually intact medieval city wall

This makes Visby the best-preserved site of the Northern European trading cities from the 13th century.

In 1995 the Hanseatic city of Visby was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Gun Westholm
Gotlands Fornsal