City with a Viking Spirit

Dec. 16, 2010 - PRLog -- The city York was founded originally as the Roman Fortress of Eboracum and made into a Anglo-Saxon trading port of Eoforwic.  In 866 though it was captured by Ivar the Boneless who led the Danish Viking called the Great Heathen Army.  They had already landed in East Anglia but made their way north and were aided with horses from King Edmund as there was civil fighting between royal candidates in the Anglia Kingdom of Northumbria.  After many battles and years the kingdom of Jórvík merged with Northumbria in 954 the king of Jórvík became redundant and was succeeded by the Earl of York was created in 960.  But this didn't stop the urban boom that made the city have the second largest population behind London in all of Great Britain.  Several attempts by the Danish Vikings were made to retake their kingdom but nothing came of it

There are plenty of attractions that show the ties and links to the Viking ancestry in the city that
near quite a few York holiday homes so it won't be hard to stumble upon them.  One place that focuses on the cities Viking roots is the Jórvík Viking Centre.  It is a museum and visitor centre that is a  great place to take the family.  It was opened in 1984 by the York Archaeological Trust after a discovery.  Before the centre was developed Cravens who were confectioners had moved from their factory in Coppergate, in 1966 and between the time of 1976 and 1981 the factory was demolished.  This was before the Coppergate Shopping centre was being built, so the York Archaeological Trust had done some excavations during this period in the area.  What they had found was that there was some well-preserved remains of timber buildings that were from the Viking city of Jórvík.  Not only that though as they also found workshops, fences, animal pens, privies, pits and wells.  Also they found some remnants such as pottery, metalwork and bones.  Finally they found wood, leather, textiles and remains from plants and animals from the same period in wet clay, in total they had found over 40,000 items that came from the Viking era.

The centre was refurbished in 2001, with the total cost of £5.  The new features include visitors taken back to 975 AD in a time capsule which takes to the a Viking settlement.  After this it has an extensive museum that has roughly 800 of their finds.  It also has interactive displays and also the staff are on hand to educate people about the tenth century.  Another museum was opened at the beginning of 2010 around the same time as the Viking Festival in York

You can see the fantastic work of the York Archaeological Trust as they did a good job of replicating the part of a Jórvík site with figures that are lifelike to the sounds and smell of the pigsties, fish market and latrines.  This centre has had almost 20 million people walk through it doors.

As mentioned earlier the city does celebrate its history with the Jórvík Viking Festival which has been established in the city since 1985.  Every February the city sees hundreds of Vikings descend on the city and re enact the life of Vikings  This is done by examples of battle drills and training routines, lectures, the arts and crafts on display, encampments, river events, saga telling and full scale battle re enactments.  This is just many of the things that can show you the Viking ties that the city has and they are proud of them tom the extent that they want you to be as well.








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