Some facts about Visby and Gotland

Campus Gotland's campus is located between the boat marina and the Almedalen park, in the heart of the World Heritage City of Visby.

• Around 60,000 people live and work on Gotland year-round, 25,000 of whom live in Visby.
• Gotland has 92 medieval churches built between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, in as many communities. Sundre on the southernmost point of Gotland is the smallest community with 25 residents, and Visby is the largest with 23,689 residents (2013).
• Gotland is the largest island in Sweden. Its area is 3,140 km² (0.8 percent of the area of Sweden) including the islands Fårö, Gotska Sandön, Furillen, and Stora and Lilla Karlsö.
• Gotland’s coast, including Fårö, spans approximately 800 km.
• The Visby City Wall was built between 1250-1288 and was reconstructed and extended in the fourteenth century. Today it is 3.4 km long.
• The scientist Christopher Polhem was born in Visby in 1661; director Ingmar Bergman spent much of his life on Fårö, and the Pippi Longstocking movies were filmed all over Gotland, but primarily in Visby.
• Gotland resident Olle Johansson was Sweden’s first known student. He registered at Uppsala University in 1477. Gotland resident Betty Pettersson was Sweden’s first female student. She registered at Uppsala University about 400 years later, in 1872.
• Gotland has offered higher education since 1988, first in the form of ordered courses and programmes from various higher education institutions. In 1998, Gotland University College ("Högskolan på Gotland") was formed as an independent university college.
• On 1 July 2013 Uppsala University merged with Gotland University College to form Uppsala University - Campus Gotland.