Visby · Things to do

About three and a half kilometres of 13th-century town wall still stands almost complete around the centre, with dozens of towers, and the walk around the outside is free and takes roughly an hour. The town inside is a UNESCO World Heritage site, which is why the cobbled lanes look the way they do.

Strandgatan 14, open daily 09:00–17:00. The collection is genuinely world-class for a town this size: the hall of Gotlandic picture stones, Viking silver hoards, medieval church sculpture and material from the 1361 battle outside the walls. Free for under-19s; adults buy online.

Visby has around a dozen roofless medieval churches standing in the middle of the town, most obviously S:ta Karin on Stora Torget and S:t Nicolai. They are free to walk into, and several are used as open-air stages during the summer festivals.

Held in week 32 every August since 1984 and built around King Valdemar Atterdag's sacking of Visby in 1361: jousting, encampments, markets, crafts and performances staged across the ruins and out into the countryside. Wristbands are sold for parts of the programme and the jousting is booked separately; accommodation goes months ahead.

A walled garden tucked against the town wall on the seaward side, free and open, with a church ruin standing in the middle of it. The obvious place to sit for half an hour between the museum and the harbour.