Birka

Viking · Sweden

Field notes

civilizations

Viking

types

City

built

750 CE

occupied

750 CE — 975 CE

country

Sweden

The site

Birka sits on the island of Björkö in Sweden's Lake Mälaren, a Viking Age trading centre founded around 750 CE that handled goods from Scandinavia, Continental Europe and the Orient. This UNESCO World Heritage site, generally regarded as Sweden's oldest town, flourished for more than two centuries before its abandonment around 975 CE. Its many excavated burial grounds have yielded jewellery and textile fragments that map out the trading networks of Viking Scandinavia.

Nearby sites

~306 km

Sammallahdenmäki

~362 km

Rock Carvings in Tanum

~627 km

Jelling

~728 km

Biskupin