Lojsta 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 ...

Lojsta District, established on 1January 2016. The

rift valley A rift valley is a linear shaped lowland between several highlands or mountain ranges created by the action of a geologic rift. Rifts are formed as a result of the pulling apart of the lithosphere due to extensional tectonics. The linear d ...

landscape of Lojsta is unusual for Gotland and the area contains the highest point, as well as some of the deepest lakes, on the island. Sweden's only native wild

ponies A pony is a type of small horse ('' Equus ferus caballus''). Depending on the context, a pony may be a horse that is under an approximate or exact height at the withers, or a small horse with a specific conformation and temperament. Compared ...

have their natural habitat in an animal reserve in Lojsta.

Geography

Lojsta is the name of a larger area surrounding

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 ...

Lojsta Church, the Lojsta socken. Lojsta is north of

Hemse Hemse is a locality situated on the Swedish island of Gotland with 1,700 inhabitants in 2014. It is the second largest locality (after Visby) on the island. Hemse is the main center of population in the southern part of the island, and it is kno ...

in the middle of southern Gotland. The forested north part of the socken, the Lojsta Heath, contains the highest hills on Gotland. The highest point has an elevation of . The southern part of Lojsta has farmed land in the valleys between the

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

cliffs. In the east, the landscape is peculiar for Gotland, with high almost vertical cliffs by the Lojsta Lakes. The Tonnklint Nature Reserve and the ''Lojsta prästänge'' are situated in Lojsta. , Lojsta Church belongs to Lojsta

in Fardhems

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 ...

Lojsta Moor

The main part of this forested moor is in Lojsta, but it also reaches into the neighboring

Etelhem Etelhem 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 Etelhem District, established on 1January 2016. Geography Etelhem is the name of the soc ...

, Klinte and

Fröjel Fröjel () 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 Fröjel District, established on 1January 2016. In 2014, it had a population of 358. ...

sockens. The area is mainly gravel and sand deposited there by the moving

ice sheet In glaciology, an ice sheet, also known as a continental glacier, is a mass of glacial ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than . The only current ice sheets are in Antarctica and Greenland; during the Last Glacial Period at La ...

during the latest

Ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...

. of the moor is classified as an animal reserve for the wild Gotland ponies (''Gotlandsrussen'') living there. These ponies are the only breed of ponies native to Sweden.

Etymology

The name comes from or , which means "flat land", "flat barren plain". However, it is uncertain which place it refers to.

History

Lojsta dates back to

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 ...

times. It was originally part of the Fardhem

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 focuse ...

, which in turn was in the southernmost of the three original districts (similar to ridings) that Gotland was divided into during the Middle Ages. In 1862, it became an independent municipality. In 1952, it was incorporated into the

municipality and in 1971, all of Gotland became one

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

. The

boatswain A boatswain ( , ), bo's'n, bos'n, or bosun, also known as a deck boss, or a qualified member of the deck department, is the most senior rate of the deck department and is responsible for the components of a ship's hull. The boatswain supervise ...

s from Lojsta under the allotment system, were part of the Second Gotlandic Boatswains Company. There are several small grave fields from the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

in Lojsta as well as house foundations, collapsed stone walls and stones with grooves. Two

rune Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, and for specialised ...

inscriptions have been found by the church and one

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

silver treasure as well as a gold

bracteate A bracteate (from the Latin ''bractea'', a thin piece of metal) is a flat, thin, single-sided gold medal worn as jewelry that was produced in Northern Europe predominantly during the Migration Period of the Germanic Iron Age (including the Vende ...

have also been found within the socken. Although named after Lojsta, the defence-structure

Lojsta Castle Lojsta Castle (''Lojsta slott'') in Stånga socken on the border of Lojsta, Gotland, Sweden, is, despite its name, not a "castle" in the normal sense, i.e. it is not a palacelike manor. It is the ruins of a once fortified estate, consisting of hou ...

and the Lojsta Hall, a reconstruction of an Iron Age

longhouse A longhouse or long house is a type of long, proportionately narrow, single-room building for communal dwelling. It has been built in various parts of the world including Asia, Europe, and North America. Many were built from timber and often rep ...

, are situated in the neighboring Stånga socken.

References

External links

Objects from Lojsta 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 ...

{{Authority control Populated places in Gotland County