Roma (), also by proxy referred to as Romakloster, is a locality on the Swedish island of

Gotland Gotland (; ; ''Gutland'' in Gutnish), also historically spelled Gottland or Gothland (), is Sweden's largest island. It is also a Provinces of Sweden, province/Counties of Sweden, county (Swedish län), Municipalities of Sweden, municipality, a ...

, with 936 inhabitants in 2014. Roma is also the name of the larger populated area, ''

socken Socken ( or ) is the name used for a part of a counties of Sweden, county in Sweden. In Denmark, similar areas are known as , in Norway or and in Finland or . A is a rural area formed around a church, typically in the Middle Ages. A socken ...

'' (not to be confused with

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

). It comprises the same area as the administrative Roma District, established on 1January 2016. Roma Abbey, a ruined medieval monastery and crown estate manor, lies in Roma.

Geography

Roma is the name of the main locality in the ''socken''. It is also the name of the ''socken'' as well as the district. Roma is situated in the central part of Gotland. The

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

Roma Church Roma Church () is a medieval church in Lövsta, Gotland (Sweden). The church is one of the largest countryside churches on Gotland. Built during the 13th century, it displays influences from Cistercian architecture and may have been used by Domini ...

, is situated in the smaller locality Lövsta, sometimes referred to as ''Roma kyrkby'', in Roma socken. , Roma Church belongs to Roma

in Romaklosters

pastorat The Church of Sweden () is an Evangelical Lutheran national church in Sweden. A former state church, headquartered in Uppsala, with around 5.5 million members at year end 2023, it is the largest Christian denomination in Sweden, the largest Lu ...

History

In 1995 the locality known as Roma was divided by

Statistics Sweden Statistics Sweden ( ; SCB, ) is the Swedish government agency operating under the Ministry of Finance and responsible for producing official statistics for decision-making, debate and research. The agency's responsibilities include: * developin ...

into a part with the tentative name of " Roma kyrkby" or "Lövsta" (pop. 277) and the remaining part that retained the name "Roma" (pop. 913), but is using "Romakloster" as the postal address. Some confusion is caused by the fact that Lövsta/Roma kyrkby has been referred to as "Roma" in the statistical figures since 2000.

Railways

Roma got a railway connection to

Visby Visby () is an urban areas in Sweden, urban area in Sweden and the seat of Gotland Municipality in Gotland County on the island of Gotland with 24,330 inhabitants . Visby is also the episcopal see for the Diocese of Visby. The Hanseatic League, ...

in 1878 and was from 1902 the island's main railway hub as a junction for its two main railways Both lines used the Swedish three-foot narrow gauge (891 mm). The railways were closed in 1953 and 1960 respectively. In 2015, however, the heritage railway Gotlands Hesselby Jernväg was extended to Roma, which thus regained access to rail traffic. The railway is maintained by the Gotland Train Association.

Notes

References

External links

*
Objects from Roma at the Digital Museum
by

Nordic Museum The Nordic Museum () 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 to begin in 1520) to the ...