User:Sofiabjorklund

Lojsta Castle
Lojsta Castle is, despite what the name suggests, not a "castle" in the word's right definition. In the middle ages Lojsta castle was a defense-structure, placed on an island in a small lake in the middle of the Swedish island Gotland. The fortress is believed to have been used by the Vitalians who supported the captured Swedish king at the time, Albert of Mecklenburg. The Vitalians were pirates and they used Gotland as their base. In 1404 they were defeated by the Teutonic Order and forced to relinquish Lojsta castle and the other two strongholds they had on Gotland.

Today there is not much remaining of the stronghold. In the beginning of the twentieth century archaeologists surveyed the area but the theories they proposed are questioned today, ex. observations about house foundations in the fortress. The buildings were most likely made out of wood and today there is no trace of them above ground.

Around the fortress was surrounded by a dug moat that together with an embankment and a palisade separated the fortress' inner courtyard from the outer. Today the lake's surface level is estimated at about 2,5 meters lower than it was in the middle ages and it is divided into three smaller lakes. When the fortress was in use it had a draw-bridge to the main land, of which you can still see remainings, nowadays the ruins of the fortress can be reached by land.

(1) http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0011/001123/112397e.pdf (2) http://www.lansstyrelsen.se/NR/rdonlyres/0A0DCBAE-1DA5-4D8A-BC76-2989166DCBF8/0/kulturstig_lojsta_a4_numrerad.pdf (3) http://www.gotland.info/tl_product.php?product_id=185093 (4) http://www.guteinfo.com/?id=2807# (5) http://english.gotlandia.info/gotlandsfakta/

Category:Buildings and structures by former use