Hovgården

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Hovgården is an archaeological site on the island of Adelsö in Lake Mälaren in Sweden. It was occupied by the Vikings in the 10th and 11th centuries, being a part of Uppsala öd, a network of royal estates supporting the Kings of Sweden, and the speculated administrative centre for the settlement of Birka on the neighbouring island of Björkö. Hovgården is covered with thousands of burial mounds of kings, chieftains, and farmers from the Viking period.

The castle of Alsnöhus and a church were added in mediaeval period. The Swedish feudal system was founded here in 1279.

Hovgården, together Birka (another Viking settlement and also the site of the earliest known Christian cnogregation in Sweden, founded by St Ansgar in 831), became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993

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