Birka

In the mid-700's, founded the King of Birka Adelsö to expand and control trade in the region. Kungsgården was Adelsö, across the strait to the west. The king maintained order in the city and protected it from being ravaged and plundered. During its heyday had Birka about 700-1000 inhabitants. Hit found their merchants with valuable trading from near and far. The working blocks were many kinds of artisans: comb maker, bronsgjutare, pärlmakare, weavers and others. They lived in simple houses, arranged in rows up from the piers on the waterfront In 830, the young Benedictine monk Ansgar in Birka. He had been sent by the Emperor Louis the Pious to preach the Christian gospel to the pagan peoples of the north. Over one and a half years preached Ansgar in Birka and several of the city's inhabitants were baptized. But Birka was never a Christian society. Here pagans and Christians lived side by side until the end of the 900s. Then took the Sigtuna Birka's role and the Viking city of Koivisto abandoned