Slite

Slite lies on Gotland's eastern coast, where small offshore islands shelter a natural harbour. Finds from an eleventh-century burial ground point to contacts across the Baltic, and the place is first mentioned in writing in the fourteenth century. Two medieval defensive works stood here; fighting took place around the castle in 1404, when the Teutonic Order held Gotland.

After the island became Swedish in 1645, plans were made to fortify Slite and make it a town. Work began on a fort on Enholmen in 1657 but stopped after a few years for lack of money. A redoubt was built on the mainland in 1662–1664. Later proposals for a carefully planned town also remained unrealised, although shipbuilding and lime-burning continued on a smaller scale around the harbour.