Luleå

From: Sweden
Category: collection
Date: December 2015

Gammelstad Church Town (Swedish: Gammelstads kyrkstad) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site situated in Gammelstaden near the city of Luleå, Sweden, at the northern end of the Gulf of Bothnia. It is the best preserved example of a type of town that was once widespread throughout northern Scandinavia. As Church Village of Gammelstad, Luleå, it was listed as a World Heritage Site in 1996. The town is located about 10 kilometers upstreams Lule River. At its centre is the 15th-century Nederluleå Church surrounded by 424 wood-built houses. The houses were only used on Sundays and during religious festivals to accommodate worshippers from the surrounding countryside who could not return home the same day because of the distance and difficult travelling conditions.