Obituary: Mats Geschwind, Founder of Storholmen Viking Village (20 May 1961 - 25 May 2014)

Abstract

The Viking Village Storholmen is an archaeological open-air museum, beautifully situated near Lake Erken, ten kilometres north of the coastal town of Norrtälje, Roslagen, Sweden. The Viking Village is situated in an exciting and historically important region that shows traces of substantial connections throughout the Baltic Sea and further east. Grave fields and runes stones surround the village, with a large burial field from the late Iron Age, with 166 burial mounds, right next to it. The burial ground is set within a beautiful nature reserve with giant oaks, several hundreds of years old. Last year, 25 May 2014, Mats Geschwind, one of the founders of Storholmen Viking village passed away. Mats was an inspirer, he strongly believed in living history and was the driving force behind the founding of the Viking village in 1995.

Keywords

• living history
• archaeological open-air museum
• viking age
• sweden