Visby is a city of both roses and ruins and capital of the Baltic island of Gotland in south east Sweden. It is one of the most important Hanse towns with a well conserved mediaeval cityscape. Since 1270, and for a hundred and fifty years, construction of a long mediaeval wall, up to ten metres high, was undertaken around the historic city centre. However, the residents of the city did not want to protect themselves from enemies from abroad, but the attacks of farmers on the island, to whom access to the city was prohibited. The mainly German Hanse merchants were very wealthy and did not wish to share their good fortune with anyone else.

Construction continued unabated and a modern city of the Middle Ages was created with more, and higher, stone buildings than anywhere else in Sweden.

In the little square with its old town hall, decisions of the council were formerly proclaimed… and the building of Gamla Apoteket shines out in all of its mediaeval splendour.

The prevailing townscape is due to a law of the nineteenth century: for the restoration and preservation of the mediaeval buildings, property owners were exempted from paying tax.

Visby was designated as a World Cultural Heritage Site in 1995 and is undoubtedly a priceless gem of the Middle Ages.