Ottenby () is a town on the island of

Öland Öland (, ; ; sometimes written ''Oland'' internationally) is the second-largest Swedish island and the smallest of the traditional provinces of Sweden. Öland has an area of and is located in the Baltic Sea just off the coast of Småland. ...

, Sweden, located in Ås parish,

Mörbylånga Municipality Mörbylånga Municipality () is a Municipalities of Sweden, municipality in Kalmar County, in south-eastern Sweden, located on the island of Öland in the Baltic Sea. The seat is located in the town of Mörbylånga, while the largest town is Färj ...

Kalmar County Kalmar County () is a Counties of Sweden, county or ''län'' in southern Sweden. It borders the counties of Kronoberg County, Kronoberg, Jönköping County, Jönköping, Blekinge County, Blekinge and Östergötland County, Östergötland. To the ...

. Ottenby is located just north of the southern tip of Öland, over thirty km south of the area's main town, Mörbylånga. Ottenby is also the name of the mansion and a royal demesne, now a nature reserve. Sweden's tallest lighthouse, Långe Jan, is just south of Ottenby.

Reserve and demesne

Ottenby is the name of a mansion (see Ottenby kungsgård) and the nearby

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

, formerly a royal game reserve stocked with

fallow deer Fallow deer is the common name for species of deer in the genus ''Dama'' of subfamily Cervinae. There are two living species, the European fallow deer (''Dama dama''), native to Europe and Anatolia, and the Persian fallow deer (''Dama mesopotamic ...

, and King

Charles X Gustav of Sweden Charles X Gustav, also Carl X Gustav (; 8 November 1622 – 13 February 1660), was King of Sweden from 1654 until his death. He was the son of John Casimir, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Kleeburg and Catherine of Sweden. After his father's ...

built a drystone wall to confine the native deer. The reserve is situated at the southern edge of the

Stora Alvaret Stora Alvaret (; "the Great Alvar") is an alvar, a barren limestone terrace, in the southern half of the island of Öland, Sweden. Stora Alvaret is a dagger shaped expanse almost long and about at the widest north end. The area of this formatio ...

, a unique

limestone pavement A limestone pavement is a natural karst landform consisting of a flat, incised surface of exposed limestone that resembles an artificial Sidewalk, pavement. The term is mainly used in the UK and Ireland, where many of these landforms have devel ...

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by Organism, organisms in interaction with their Biophysical environment, environment. The Biotic material, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and en ...

designated as a

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

comprising most of the southern half of the island of Öland. Ottenby offers diverse

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

s including

coast A coast (coastline, shoreline, seashore) is the land next to the sea or the line that forms the boundary between the land and the ocean or a lake. Coasts are influenced by the topography of the surrounding landscape and by aquatic erosion, su ...

marsh In ecology, a marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous plants rather than by woody plants.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p More in genera ...

, marine,

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...

and

alvar An alvar is a biological environment based on a limestone plain with thin or no soil and, as a result, sparse grassland vegetation. Often flooded in the spring, and affected by drought in midsummer, alvars support a distinctive group of prairie ...

. Nearest villages include Alby, Hulterstad, Gettlinge, and Triberga. Ottenby's name is first mentioned in writing year in 1282. In the Middle Ages it comprised 19 gardens and belonged to

Nydala Abbey Nydala Abbey () was a Cistercian monastery in the province of Småland, Sweden, near the lake Rusken. Although the abbey ceased to operate in the 16th century, its church was renovated and converted into a Protestant church during the 17th century ...

Småland Småland () is a historical Provinces of Sweden, province () in southern Sweden. Småland borders Blekinge, Scania, Halland, Västergötland, Östergötland and the island Öland in the Baltic Sea. The name ''Småland'' literally means "small la ...

. After the abbey's appropriation by

Gustav Vasa Gustav Eriksson Vasa (12 May 1496 – 29 September 1560), also known as Gustav I, was King of Sweden from 1523 until his death in 1560. He was previously self-recognised Protector of the Realm (''Reichsverweser#Sweden, Riksföreståndare'') fr ...

in the 1520s the mansion became the site of a stud farm; from 1831 to 1892 it was a stud farm for the Swedish army, and later a business. The main building was erected in 1804 and designed by court architect Carl Fredrik Sundevall. It is a whitewashed stone building with a hipped roof. In 1935 Ottenby demesne was declared a national monument; the farm is owned by the National Property Board and farmed by the Wiström family.

Area prehistory

The oldest known human settlement on the southern part of Oland is slightly to the north at Alby, dating to the

Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Ancient Greek language, Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic i ...

era and showing the presence of

hunter-gatherer A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived Lifestyle, lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, esp ...

s.C.Michael Hogan, ''Alby Mesolithic Village'', The Megalithic Portal, ed. A. Burnham, 2007
/ref> The village prehistory dates to the early

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistory, prehistoric period during which Rock (geology), stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended b ...

when settlers from the mainland migrated across the

ice bridge An ice bridge is a frozen natural structure formed over seas, bays, rivers or lake surfaces. They facilitate migration of animals or people over a water body that was previously uncrossable by terrestrial animals, including humans. The most signi ...

connecting the island via the

Kalmar Strait The Kalmar Strait () is a strait in the Baltic Sea, located between the Swedish island of Öland and the province of Småland of the Swedish mainland. The strait is about long and between and in width. There is a road bridge across the stra ...

about 6000 to 7000 BCE.

References

Ramsar sites in Sweden Tourist attractions in Kalmar County Mörbylånga Municipality {{Kalmar-geo-stub