Lake Tingstäde is a lake next to

Tingstäde Tingstäde 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 Tingstäde District, established on 1January 2016. Tingstäde is most noted for its nearb ...

in the central northern part of

Gotland Gotland (, ; ''Gutland'' in Gutnish), also historically spelled Gottland or Gothland (), is Sweden's largest island. It is also a province, county, municipality, and diocese. The province includes the islands of Fårö and Gotska Sandön to the ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. It is the second biggest lake on Gotland, after Lake Bästeträsk. The surface of the lake is above sea level. The lake was used as a landing site for

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tec ...

s during the

interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the World War I, First World War to the beginning of the World War II, Second World War. The in ...

, such as the first regular passenger planes between Gotland and mainland Sweden 1933–39, and a stopover on the

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

/Lindarängen - Danzig line, serviced by the

AB Aerotransport AB Aerotransport (ABA) was a Swedish government-owned airline which operated during the first half of the 20th century and was merged into what would become the SAS Group. ABA was established on 27 March 1924 under the name Aktiebolaget Aerotr ...

in 1925–26.

History

During the 1120s, a square timber platform was built in the middle of the lake. On the platform was a number of closely built wooden houses. The remnants of this construction, known as the

Bulverket The Bulverket is the remnants of a large wooden fortification or Glossary of architecture#B, bulwark at Lake Tingstäde on the island of Gotland, Sweden. When built, it consisted of a platform with houses surrounded by a double palisade with the ...

, are still present on the bottom of the lake. It is still not known why the

bulwark Bulwark primarily refers to: * Bulwark (nautical), a nautical term for the extension of a ship's side above the level of a weather deck * Bastion, a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification The Bulwark primarily refe ...

was built. The name ''Tingstäde'' is probably related to the

thing Thing or The Thing may refer to: Philosophy * An object * Broadly, an entity * Thing-in-itself (or ''noumenon''), the reality that underlies perceptions, a term coined by Immanuel Kant * Thing theory, a branch of critical theory that focuses ...

that was located north of the

Tingstäde Church Tingstäde Church ( sv, Tingstäde kyrka) is a medieval church on the Swedish island of Gotland, in the Diocese of Visby. Its present appearance dates largely from the 13th and 14th centuries. History A wooden church was built on the site of the ...

close by the lake. The word ''träsk'' is an old

Gutnish Gutnish ( ), or rarely Gutnic ( sv, gutniska or ), refers to the original language spoken on parts of the islands of Gotland and Fårö. The different dialects of Gutnish, while stemming from the Old Gutnish ( sv, Forngutniska) variety of Old N ...

word for 'lake'.

Biology

Lake Tingstäde is one of Gotland's most biologically diverse lakes. It contains

pike Pike, Pikes or The Pike may refer to: Fish * Blue pike or blue walleye, an extinct color morph of the yellow walleye ''Sander vitreus'' * Ctenoluciidae, the "pike characins", some species of which are commonly known as pikes * ''Esox'', genus of ...

perch Perch is a common name for fish of the genus ''Perca'', freshwater gamefish belonging to the family Percidae. The perch, of which three species occur in different geographical areas, lend their name to a large order of vertebrates: the Percif ...

ruffe The Eurasian ruffe (''Gymnocephalus cernua''), also known as ruffe or pope, is a freshwater fish found in temperate regions of Europe and northern Asia. It has been introduced into the Great Lakes of North America, reportedly with unfortuna ...

roach Roach may refer to: Animals * Cockroach, various insect species of the order Blattodea * Common roach (''Rutilus rutilus''), a fresh and brackish water fish of the family Cyprinidae ** ''Rutilus'' or roaches, a genus of fishes * California roach ...

bleak Bleak may refer to: Fish * Species of the genus '' Alburnus'' * '' Alburnoides bipunctatus'', also known as the schneider Music * "Bleak", a song by Opeth from '' Blackwater Park'' * "Bleak", a song by Soulfly from '' Dark Ages'' Other uses * B ...

tench The tench or doctor fish (''Tinca tinca'') is a fresh- and brackish-water fish of the order Cypriniformes found throughout Eurasia from Western Europe including the British Isles east into Asia as far as the Ob and Yenisei Rivers. It is also ...

rudd ''Scardinius'' is a genus of ray-finned fish in the family Cyprinidae commonly called rudds. Locally, the name "rudd" without any further qualifiers is also used for individual species, particularly the common rudd (''S. erythrophthalmus''). Th ...

and

carp Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish from the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. While carp is consumed in many parts of the world, they are generally considered an invasive species in parts of ...

. There are also

crayfish Crayfish are freshwater crustaceans belonging to the clade Astacidea, which also contains lobsters. In some locations, they are also known as crawfish, craydids, crawdaddies, crawdads, freshwater lobsters, mountain lobsters, rock lobsters, mu ...

in the lake.

References

Tingstade trask Gotland {{Sweden-geo-stub