When visiting York, you have to be sure you spent some time
at Jorvik Viking Centre. It will took a good part of your day, but you will be
overwhelmed with the experience. Not just the great education centre, but also
an entertainment for the whole family without an exception.
The Jorvik Viking Centre was opened in 1984, after extensive
excavation at Coppergate, to show that Viking society wasn't just violence and
warfare but one of trade, commerce and crafts. It is built on the very same
site of archaeological research. That was possible thanks to unusual oxygen-free
conditions in the soil that helped preserve many materials that normally rot
away to dust. These conditions meant that minute details of everyday life in
Viking times could be recreated to allow you to experience life in a busy
street in York (Jorvik) on 25th October 975 AD. The buildings and objects you
see were all found here and are reconstructed at the level of the Viking-Age
ground surface.
