Björkö (Swedish for "Birch Island") is an island in Lake Mälaren in eastern-central Sweden. It is mostly famous for housing the excavation site Birka populated c. AD 750-975, together with Hovgården on Adelsö declared a World Heritage Site in 1993. Located just south of Adelsö and west of Ekerö and Munsö islands, it is one of the islands in Ekerö Municipality.
HINT:
In this Dossier
Björkö, Ekerö in the context of Birka
Birka (Birca in medieval sources), on the island of Björkö (lit. "Birch Island") in present-day Sweden, was an important Viking Age trading center which handled goods from Scandinavia as well as many parts of Continental Europe and the Orient. Björkö is located in Lake Mälaren, 30 kilometers west of contemporary Stockholm, in the municipality of Ekerö.
Birka was founded around AD 750 and it flourished for more than 200 years. It was abandoned c. AD 975, around the same time Sigtuna was founded as a Christian town some 35 km to the northeast. It has been estimated that the population in Viking Age Birka was between 500 and 1000 people.
View the full Wikipedia page for Birka