Tofta, also known as Gotlands Tofta, 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 ...

Tofta District, established on 1January 2016. Tofta is most noted for its long, sandy beach. In the north part of Tofta is a military firing range, which is also the location of the annual Gotland Grand National, the world's largest

enduro Enduro is a form of motorcycle sport run on extended cross-country, off-road courses. Enduro consists of many different obstacles and challenges. The main type of enduro event, and the format to which the World Enduro Championship is run, is ...

race.

Geography

Tofta is the name of the socken as well as the district. It is also the name of the small village surrounding the medieval Tofta Church, also known as ''Tofta kyrkby''. Tofta is on the central west coast of Gotland, situated on a high rocky

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ...

mostly covered in pine forest, 48%, while 22% of the area is used as farmland. In the northwest part of Tofta, between the coastline and road 140, is the Tofta firing range (''Tofta Skjutfält''). It is a military compound, approximately , used for training with live ammunition,

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engi ...

artillery Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during siege ...

and

land mine A land mine is an explosive device concealed under or on the ground and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks, as they pass over or near it. Such a device is typically detonated automati ...

s. Once a year, the Gotland Grand National, the world's largest enduro race, is held on the range. On the Tofta coast are two old fishing villages; Blåhäll to the north and Gnisvärd a bit further south. Blåhäll has several caves and Gnisvärd has some of the grandest

stone ship The stone ship or ship setting was an early burial custom in Scandinavia, Northern Germany, and the Baltic states. The grave or cremation burial was surrounded by slabs or stones in the shape of a boat or ship. The ships vary in size and were e ...

s on Gotland. Inland is the Smågårde village. Tofta is most noted for the long sandy beach along the southern coastline. It is the second largest and most visited, on Gotland after the Sudersand beach on

Fårö Fårö () or Fåre in Gutnish is a Baltic Sea island just north of the island of Gotland, itself off mainland Sweden's southeastern coast. It is the second-largest island in the province and it is a popular summer resort. It has its own language ...

. , Tofta Church belongs to Eskelhem-Tofta

in Eskelhems

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 Eskelhem and Gnisvärd. 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 ...

, 11308 Tofta, is named after this place.

History

The village of Tofta dates from

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. The oldest preserved text where the name is mentioned, is from 1304. The name may be related to the Swedish word ''toft'', meaning

thwart A thwart is a part of an undecked boat that provides seats for the crew and structural rigidity for the hull. A thwart goes from one side of the hull to the other. There might be just one thwart in a small boat, or many in a larger boat, especial ...

. In the greater Tofta area there are a number of remnants from earlier eras. During excavations, Stone Age settlements and a

cist A cist ( or ; also kist ; from grc-gre, κίστη, Middle Welsh ''Kist'' or Germanic ''Kiste'') is a small stone-built coffin-like box or ossuary used to hold the bodies of the dead. Examples can be found across Europe and in the Middle Ea ...

has been found. There are stone ships and grave mounds from the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

, and 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 ...

there are 23 grave fields, groove stones, stone walls, a

picture stone A picture stone, image stone or figure stone is an ornate slab of stone, usually limestone, which was raised in Germanic Iron Age or Viking Age Scandinavia, and in the greatest number on Gotland.The article ''Bildstenar'' in ''Nationalencykloped ...

and a

hillfort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...

. There are also

runes 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 ...

chiseled on a stone in the church. The stone is from 1170–90, and is a more likely to have been a tombstone than a

runestone A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition began in the 4th century and lasted into the 12th century, but most of the runestones d ...

dedicated to a man called ''Röde Orm'' ("Red Snake"), a common name at that time.

Places of interest

A reconstruction of a

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 ...

village has been made in Tofta, where visitors can try out life during the Viking age.

Gallery

File:Tofta-Kyrka-S.jpg, Tofta Church File:CV9040 2.jpg, Tank on Tofta firing range File:Vikingabyn-Tofta-Gotland-2010-01.jpg, Tofta Viking village Tofta strand södra.JPG, Tofta beach

References

External links

Objects from Tofta 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 ...

"Röde Orm" runes in Tofta Church
{{Authority control Populated places in Gotland County Nordic Stone Age Nordic Bronze Age Iron Age Scandinavia Prehistory of Sweden Medieval Sweden