The memorial cross at “the Cross Meadow”

A couple of decades after the Danish invasion, c. 1380, a memorial cross was erected outside Visby. The cross remains there to this day.

The inscription is one of the earliest sources and reads in Latin: “Anno Domini MCCCLXI feria III post Jacobi ante portas Wisby in manibus Danorum ceciderunt Gutenses hic sepulti, orate pro eis!”

In translation: “In the year of Our Lord 1361, on 27 July, fell Gotlanders into the hands of Danish in front of Visby gates. They are buried here. Pray for them.” (Translated from the Swedish translation in Gun Westholm’s book “Visby 1361 Invasionen”.)

The area where the cross stands and where the mass graves have been found has throughout history been used as pasture for the townspeople’s cattle. That is why it is called the Cross Meadow (Korsbetningen).