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NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. MORAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS. 163
Visby in the Island of Gotland.
From s painting by a. Th. Gellbbstedt.
this characteristic and at the same time to respect the requirements of
the day, are the objects to be kept in sight by the regenerators of
Swedish architecture.
Almost half the number of Swedish towns date their existence from the
middle ages; of the rest, most arose in the 17th century, some few in the
16th and 18th, while 10 or more are wholly the product of the 19th century.
The city of Visby, with its numerous picturesque ruins, preserves quite
a medieval aspect. A relic of the same period, in plan at all events,
is also seen in . the »City» of Stockholm. Reminiscences of the middle
ages are, moreover, also to be found in the towns of Skåne in
comparatively large number, and in the towns of the rest of Southern and
of Central Sweden, though less frequently; in Northern Sweden, on the
other hand, they are almost entirely wanting. Swedish towns have little
to show that can be traced back to the 16th century, but of the two
following ones, more especially the 17th, there are very palpable marks.
That is peculiarly true of Stockholm. In the main, however, both the
capital and the provincial towns are predominantly modern in stamp.
Buildings of the 19th century are the rule, those of other centuries
being the exception. The causes of that are to be sought both in the
ravages wrought by war and by fire, ravages always rendered more
severe by the employment of wood as a building-material, and also in
that increasingly noticeable and oftentimes violent desire to modernize
that has taken possession of the public.
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