All the way down in south western corner of present-day Sweden lies Fotevikens Museum. The Viking Town, a unique location for living history, is located here. The 70000 m2 area is situated on a historical beach with an exceptional view of both the larger Höllviken and the smaller Foteviken.The construction of the town was commenced in 1996 and is the only reconstructed, full-scale enviroment, accurately depicting an actual viking society.

The town is located on a very exciting historical ground. Across the bay lies Skanör where they hosted annual herring markets during August and September from the 13th – 16th century. This market was the largest international meeting point in all of Northern Europe. Before they moved the market to Skanör it was held on this side of the bay, where the Viking town now lies. This older market site is mentioned as early as in 1134, but probably has roots even further back in time.

In the neighbouring lands there used to be a field, called “Lille Vi åker” (“Little Vi field”). A “Vi” is a pre-christian term meaning “holy site”. Before the Christianization of Skåne in 970 AD this was the location of an offering site or a pagan temple. When Harald Bluetooth conquered Skåne, Christianity was introduced and the site was destroyed and instead the king erected a wooden church some hundred meters to the north. During the same time, Foteviken probably became a winter harbour for the Scanian war fleet. I order to protect the harbour Harald had a nearly 300 meter long stone barrier built under water. He also built himself a mansion and most likely founded the nearby farm village of Lilla Hammar.

As a visitor of the Viking town you will meet a small city from 900 years ago and some of its inhabitants. The town is located near the beach and is protected by a large, semi-circular mound. The mound is open towards the sea. One problem in reconstructing city mounds such as this is no one really knows what the wooden palisade that used to top these mounds looked like. It is very important that they don´t look like theatrical backdrops, as their appearance tends to dominate the whole scenery. We have therefore opted to construct a simple wooden wall of a kind one can find evidence of even earlier.

You enter the town through the South gate. A long main street runs parallel to the beach and from this smaller alleys (“streden”) lead in to the settlement. The houses are crowded in these alleys. Facing the main street, the residential houses are built, followed by the small backyards and the warehouses. One of these alleys end with a large cooking house. The fact that the houses aren’t built as exact replicas of archaeological findings is something that sets the Viking town of Foteviken apart from other historical villages. Typically, you only find fragments of a house, making it very hard to reconstruct from just one specimen. Instead, Foteviken chose to bring together details from several domestic remnants. We also infused facts from contemporary written sources into the reconstructions. This way, the houses aren’t monuments from archaeological excavations. They can be retrofitted or remodelled – in the same dynamic fashion as once might have been done.

Every summer a large number of Vikings, i.e. people who are into re-enactment, gather in Foteviken. They dress in Viking-inspired clothing, live in Viking tents and travel around Europe during the summer to meet with like-minded. Today there are several thousand people in Europe dedicated to this inspiring activity. It has also become popular among these Vikings to celebrate your personal festivities in the Viking town. The requirement for free access to the Viking town as a Viking is that you agree to follow and obey the town´s own law. This stipulates that no discrimination is allowed regarding gender, religion or nationality. The international Viking movement is one big family – Foteviken is one of many meeting places in Europe today.