Öja is a populated area, a

socken Socken is the name used for a part of a county in Sweden. In Denmark similar areas are known as ''sogn'', in Norway ''sokn'' or ''sogn'' and in Finland ''pitäjä'' ''(socken)''. A socken is a country-side area that was formed around a church, ...

(not to be confused with

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...

), on the Swedish island of Gotland. It comprises the same area as the

administrative Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, administ ...

Öja District, established on 1January 2016.

Geography

Öja is situated partly on the narrow southern isthmus that connects the Storsudret peninsula to Gotland and partly on the peninsula itself. The

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

Öja Church is located in the socken. The

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localities (Australia), in which a locality is a geographic subdivis ...

Burgsvik is in the west part of Öja. , Öja Church belongs to Hoburg

in Sudrets

pastorat The Church of Sweden ( sv, Svenska kyrkan) is an Evangelical Lutheran national church in Sweden. A former state church, headquartered in Uppsala, with around 5.6 million members at year end 2021, it is the largest Christian denomination in Swede ...

, along with the churches in Hamra,

Vamlingbo Vamlingbo is a populated area, a socken (not to be confused with parish), on the Swedish island of Gotland. It comprises the same area as the administrative Vamlingbo District, established on 1January 2016. Geography Vamlingbo is the name of th ...

, Sundre and Fide. One of the asteroids in the

asteroid belt The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, located roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, c ...

, 10123 Fideöja, is named after this place and the neighboring Fide socken.

''Öjamadonnan''

Öja is mostly known for the , 13th century, wooden sculpture ''Öjamadonnan'' ("The Öja Madonna"), a Stabat Mater representation of the

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...

. The

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

statue was removed from the Öja Church during the Swedish Reformation and stowed away in a woodshed. It was later retrieved by

Gotland Museum The Gotland Museum ( sv, Gotlands museum) (previously known as ''Länsmuseet på Gotland'' or ''Gotlands Fornsal'') in Visby, Sweden, is the county museum of Gotland. It was founded by the Friends of Gotland's Antiquity society in 1875, at the in ...

, renovated in 1948 and it is now displayed in the museum. A replica of the statue for Öja Church, was later made by sculptor Bertil Nyström. The sculpture has been chosen as one of the Treasured Objects in Sweden.

References

External links

*
Objects from Öja at the Digital Museum
by

Nordic Museum The Nordic Museum ( sv, Nordiska museet) is a museum located on Djurgården, an island in central Stockholm, Sweden, dedicated to the cultural history and ethnography of Sweden from the early modern period (in Swedish history, it is said t ...

Populated places in Gotland County {{Gotland-geo-stub