Viking Heritage Tour with Sweden History Tours in Vallentuna

Duration

8 hours

Discover Vallentunasjön's Viking Age together with Markim-Orkesta and its history!

Visit the Vendel Age, the Viking Age, the Bronze Age and a ruin where Gustav Vasa's grandmother lived with Vallentuna's with cool Viking Age sites. This tour also visits the parishes of Markim and Orkesta, once UNESCO World Heritage Candidate sites in the 1990s. However, the landowners did not approve the restrictions so nothing happened.

Tour description

Come with us to the end of the Viking Age and the beginning of Swedish and local Christianity, then we investigate Swedish history from the Bronze Age to today, including a visit to an Icelandic horse farm. These guided tours start either in Stockholm with hotel pick-up or at Vallentuna station. Go in one of our cars or bring your own car. At 5h and 8h a lunch stop is included.

Arkils Tingstad Viking law and order at one of Sweden's most well-preserved court sites. Here you get to hear about the Viking Age society, how it was governed by the great men at the courthouse. Also learn about runes, rune stones, Viking laws and morals, important routes and ships.

Jarlabankes Bro Meet the great man Jarlabanke. At Jarlabanke's bridge you will hear the story of the Uppland great man Jarlabanke. He was a very proud (or should I say boastful) man who raised several rune stones to honor himself. He also raised them while he was still alive, which was not common in the Viking Age.

Broby Bro We visit the rune stones and get to see the early Christian cemetery where the Viking woman Estrid was buried.

Vallentuna church See Vallentuna church with early medieval stonemason signatures and rune stones. Hear about the Middle Ages and the church's exciting history. At 5h Viking we take a Lunchstop in Vallentuna.

Gällsta At Gällsta there are several rune stones that tell the story of a family for 4 generations. Hear about family farms and the importance of the family itself in Viking-era society. Also learn about how a Viking-era farm was built.

Markim-Orkesta Attractions! If we drive, the journey continues to Husbyöhn's Icelandic Horse Farm and stops at a number of different rune stones that tell us about the parish's people during the Viking Age. Then we drive to Markim's church. After the visit outside the church, we move on to Snåttsta farm. At Snåttsta, Inga from Svartsjölandet erected 4 rune stones to her dead husband Ragnfast. We then take you further through the Uppland cultural landscape and move between picturesque farms.

At Vaxtuna we talk about the Vikings' funeral traditions and here we can eat packed lunch (if bring some food). We tell you about the inhabitants of the Vendel Age at Kööhögen, perhaps Sweden's first archaeological excavation site. Then we continue through Orkesta parish. We guide you at various burial grounds and tell you about Swedish / local church history outside Orkesta church. At the church there are also 5 rune stones, we talk about runes and the meaning of rune stones. In addition, we visit a Viking-era burial ground.

At the ruin of Gustav Vasa's grandmother's home, you will hear about Vasa-era, Gustav's father's curse letter when he destroyed the home of the priest in Frösunda's and committed criminal violence against his maid, and of course about the reformation of the church.

A warm welcome to a journey more than 1000 years back in time! Book your ticket today!