Streets of Visby

The Hanseatic League (also known as the Hanse or Hansa; Low German: Hanse, Dudesche Hanse, Latin: Hansa, Hansa Teutonica or Liga Hanseatica) was an economic alliance of trading cities and their merchant guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe. It stretched from the Baltic to the North Sea and inland during the Late Middle Ages and early modern period (c. 13th–17th centuries).

The League was created to protect commercial interests and privileges granted by foreign rulers in cities and countries the merchants visited. The Hanseatic cities had their own legal system and furnished their own protection and mutual aid. Despite this, the organization was not a city-state, nor can it be called a confederation of city-states; only a very small number of the cities within the league enjoyed autonomy and liberties comparable to those of a free imperial city.

The legacy of the Hansa is remembered today in several names, for example the German airline Lufthansa (i.e., 'Air Hansa'), F.C. Hansa Rostock and the Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Groningen, in the Netherlands.

Visby [ˈviːsbʏ] is a locality and the seat of Gotland Municipality in Gotland County, Sweden with 22,593 inhabitants, as of 2010. It is the only locality with historical city status on the island of Gotland; it is arguably the best-preserved medieval city in Scandinavia and has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Among the most notable historical remains are the 3.4 km (2.1 mi) long stone wall called Ringmuren ("the Ring Wall"), that encircles the city and the old church ruins.

The name "Visby" comes from the Old Norse Vis, (genitive singular of Vi) meaning sacrificial place, and by, meaning "city".

Visby is a popular vacation destination for Scandinavians during the summer and receives thousands of tourists every year.