Catacombes de Paris

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Bodies & Skulls by James Bareham / The New Cruelty

François-Henri Galland

Morbid Fact of the Day

The Visby skeletal collection at the Fornsalen Museum in Sweden contains the battered remains of 1185 soldiers who died at the Battle of Visby in 1361.  It’s the largest battlefield skeletal collection in Europe.  

In July of 1361 the Danish king decided to invade the island of Gotland, Sweden because it had a diverse population that included Danes, had wealthy inhabitants, and was strategically located in the Baltic Sea.  Swedish peasants tried to repel the Danish invasion near the city of Visby.  But the inexperienced Gotlanders were no match for the Danish soldiers and many of them were slaughtered.  The fallen Gotland soldiers were buried in three large mass graves, with their armor and weapons, near the city walls.  After the Gotlanders surrendered, the island became a part of the Danish kingdom for a short period of time, until the Swedish crown reclaimed it in the early 15th century.

The bodies were recovered from three mass graves in the early 20th century and were the earliest mass graves to be excavated by archaeologists.  Anthropologists from all over the world come to examine these battered bones to study medieval battlefield injuries.