Mörbylånga Kommun
The southern part of Öland
The Mörbylånga Kommun is one of only two municipalities on the Swedish Baltic island of Öland. It extends over the entire southern half of the island, while the neighboring municipality Borgholms Kommun covers the northern half.
The extraordinary karst landscape Stora Alvaret is undoubtedly the characteristic of southern Öland. It is the largest of its kind with an area of about 260 square kilometers, which is around a quarter of the world's existing Alvar.
The largest part of the municipality, including the Stora Alvaret, is the World Heritage Site Agricultural Landscape of Southern Öland since 2000 and must not be changed. In this ancient cultural landscape are countless evidence of human habitation of the past millennia.
There are Iron Age burial mounds and grave fields like the large Gettlinge Gravfält, numerous ruins of prehistoric concentric castles like Gråborg or the fully restored Eketorps Borg. On the way through the municipality you will also see a large number of old windmills, which gave Öland its nickname Island of windmills.
On both coasts are many bathing places and beaches and the numerous camping sites, holiday homes and apartments demonstrate, that the sunny island is one of the most popular holiday regions in Sweden.
In the extreme south of the municipality which is the southern tip of the island, you can find the nature reserve Ottenby, one of the largest and most important bird sanctuaries in Sweden. There is also Sweden's tallest lighthouse, the Långe Jan.
Overall, there are nine villages with over 200 inhabitants in Mörbylånga Kommun. The largest town, located near the Öland Bridge, is Färjestaden with over 5,000 inhabitants, followed by the main town Mörbylånga with almost 1,800 residents. The next smaller villages are Skogsby and Algutsrum with a population of around 550 residents each.