Havdhem: Church History and Nature Reserve Kistänge

Havdhem combines a remarkable ecclesiastical cultural landscape with a nature reserve east of the village. If, during your trip to Gotland, you would like to combine historic buildings, regional history, and a flower-rich landscape, the area offers several clearly distinct points of interest.

Church, Vicarage, and Heritage Conservation

The oldest part of Havdhem Church is the chancel, dating from the late 12th century. Its furnishings include a Romanesque sandstone tympanum relief depicting Christ and four apostles. The nave was built around 1200; at the same time, the chancel was given an apse to the east. The church therefore reveals different construction phases without its history having to be reduced to a single date.

The Havdhem vicarage adjoins the church directly. It is a well-preserved 18th-century vicarage with outbuildings. Its two-storey main building was constructed in 1763 from limestone and sandstone and is regarded as a large-scale example of mid-18th-century architecture on Gotland.

The cultural landscape surrounding Havdhem Church and its churchyard is of national importance for heritage conservation. This information is particularly relevant when choosing where to stay if it is not just a single building, but the interplay of the church, vicarage, and surrounding cultural landscape that is to be the deciding factor.

Kistänge: Nature East of Havdhem

A little more than one kilometre east of the village of Havdhem lies Kistänge Nature Reserve. It covers 4.3 hectares and is the remnant, now isolated and surrounded by farmland, of a once considerably larger area of wet meadows. The historic transformation of the landscape is therefore just as much part of the character of the reserve as its present-day location amid agriculturally dominated areas.

Kistänge is particularly worth visiting in early summer, when the floral display is at its richest. The reserve thus provides a distinct natural counterpoint to the architectural and cultural history surrounding the church. Those who wish to plan their travel around the landscape experience will find a specific seasonal distinction among Havdhem’s points of interest here.

Further Historical Traces in Havdhem

Another cultural point of interest is Gotlands Lantbruksmuseum, a cultural centre in Havdhem in the south of Gotland. “Lagerlingen” offers a completely different historical perspective: in the 1940s, an internment camp for German political prisoners stood on the site of Havdhem’s present-day sports field. The camp was closed in October 1945; the prisoners were subsequently transferred to the Swedish mainland.

Compare Further Destinations

If you would like to expand your destination search beyond Havdhem, you can also include Slite, Kappelshamn, Sanda, Väskinde, När, Fårö, Gothem and Hejde in your wider search. Havdhem itself represents the combination of medieval church architecture, an 18th-century vicarage, more recent local history, and a small natural area that is particularly rich in flowers in early summer.

For the overarching travel overview: Gotland.