Hajdeby

People have lived here at Hajdeby since the Iron Age. By hiking the cultural trail, you get to experience a historic cultural landscape. Adjacent to the path are the so-called Hajdeby farms. Three closely spaced farms that show traditional Gotlandic building practices.

The farms' buildings

Between 1925-34, the middle farm was owned by a professor of folklife research, Nils Lithberg. The interior and color scheme of the manor house are today largely characterized by this period. The famous stone mansion was also built during Professor Lithberg's first years at Hajdeby.

The middle of the three Hajdeby farms, dating mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries, consists of six buildings, all mainly in stone. The small farm has a manor house, two paired wings and a "manor house". On the main farm there is a large barn that extends along the gravel road to Torsburgen. At an angle to the barn is the barn wing, a building with several functions such as a storehouse, wagon and firewood shed and a retreat for the servants. The farm buildings frame the grassy main courtyard, which is bounded by a wrought iron fence on a cast base and a short stretch of limestone wall. The farm entrance runs diagonally in from the road to the north-east, between the barn and the barn wing.

The southern part of Hajdebygården's buildings consists of a stone manor house under a tiled roof from about 1860, an 18th-century stone brewhouse under a shingle roof and a barn with a stone threshing house from the 19th century.

The buildings are well preserved and show the traditional Gotlandic building style, which together show an outlying farm with continuity from the Iron Age. The farms have had a mill, a tar pit and a lime kiln. Today, the southern and central farms are protected as listed buildings.

The cultural trail

The path then leads you through a beautiful cultural landscape with graves and house foundations from the Iron Age. If you continue the trail, you will pass cairns, fossil fields and a former meadow. Finally, you will pass the farms that were previously built in wood but have been built of stone since the 19th century. We cannot know what the settlement looked like during the Iron Age, but below is an illustration of what a house from the time may have looked like.

Notice that the roof rests directly on the stone walls and that there are no windows. The roofs may have been covered with turf or ag. Ag is a semi-grass that grows on Gotland's moors, and the tradition of ag roofs still lives on Gotland. Today it is most commonly found on lambing sheds or barns.

Good to know for you as a visitor

• At the parking lot there is an information sign about the area and leafletPdf, 1.7 MB. to the cultural trail.
• The cultural trail is about 2.5 km long and goes through easily accessible pasture.
• In order to walk the entire trail, you need to pass several stables.
• There are cows grazing in the pasture. Remember to show consideration and respect the animals.