Medeltida Jul (Medieval Yule) is staged by Medeltidsveckan på Gotland, the organisation behind the August Medieval Week, in S:t Nicolai, the largest of Visby’s medieval church ruins, a 13th-century Dominican priory church inside the town wall. The 2026 edition runs from Friday 4 to Sunday 6 December 2026; the 2025 edition ran 5–7 December. It is held on the first weekend of December each year, so 3–5 December 2027 is expected.
The weekend opens with a torchlight procession from Österport, the east gate of the town wall, through the streets to the ruin. Inside, fires are lit among the pillars, market stalls sell crafts — the organiser’s own example is needle-bound mittens — and food and drink to warm up with, music fills the vaults, and there are jesters, storytelling and a flea market. Concerts are held in the ruin on the winter evenings, and the programme adds workshops, lectures and guided walks through the medieval town. Daylight lasts about seven hours in Visby in early December, which is part of the point: the ruin is lit by fire and torches for most of the opening hours, and the organisers promise ‘hopefully sparkling snow’.
Walking around the market is free. Concerts, workshops, city walks and lectures are ticketed and sold in advance through Nortic, the same system as the summer festival. Partners listed by the organiser include Destination Gotland and Region Gotland.
Getting to Gotland in December means the Destination Gotland ferry from Nynäshamn or Oskarshamn (about three hours) or a flight to Visby; unlike Medieval Week, beds in town are easy to find. Medieval Week itself, held every August since 1984, has its own page.
