York announces world's first 'Temporal Twinning'

Whilst the twinning of two cities around the world is well established, the historic city of York has taken the concept of sharing cultures one step further, announcing the world’s first ‘temporal twinning’, where the modern city is twinned with its Norse predecessor, the Viking city of Jorvik.

“The whole idea of twinning cities was to promote better understanding between different cultures, and to build economic links between two locations.  We’ve been doing this for the last 30 years with the Viking city that stood where York is today, with visitors coming to the modern city to learn about the Vikings,” comments Cllr Sonja Crisp, cabinet member for Leisure, Culture and Tourism at City of York Council, who has worked with experts from York Archaeological Trust to set up the twinning.

Interest in the Vikings has brought millions of visitors to the city, attracted not only by the recreation of a tenth-century cityscape at JORVIK Viking Centre – which is celebrating its 30thanniversary in 2014 but also by the wealth of Norse antiquities on display within the city’s museums and attractions, and even including to the names and layouts of the streets in the city centre itself.  ‘Coppergate’ derives from the Old Norse meaning ‘Street of the Cup Maker’, and street layouts in the city centre follow Viking property boundaries that date back 1000 years, when Jorvik was a thriving metropolis and hub of international trade- the Viking equivalent of modern Hong Kong.

 “It seems strange to think how comparatively little residents and visitors knew of Viking-age York just 40-50 years ago.  The Coppergate dig, from which the world-class discoveries revealed so much about day-to-day life in a Viking city thanks to detailed research lasting over 30 years by our own archaeologists, led to the establishment of JORVIK Viking Centre, which has now welcomed more than 17 million visitors since it opened in 1984,” comments Sarah Maltby, director of attractions for the York Archaeological Trust which owns the JORVIK Viking Centre. 

One cultural legacy of both the archaeology and the attraction – one of the first in the world to immerse visitors in a completely different culture, with the sights, sounds and even smells of a bygone age – is that they continue to inspire children to become archaeologists and historians, and enthuse visitors about a race more commonly recognised for brutal pillaging than peaceful settlement and international trade. 

“It seems fitting that, through this ‘temporal twinning’, York is recognising the cultural exchange that continues to take place.  Once again, York’s Vikings are bringing us a world first!” adds Sarah.

The twinning will be marked by the installation of a new series of ‘Welcome to York – twinned with the Viking City of Jorvik’ signs on major roads into the city, alongside a host of new Viking-themed educational and outreach programmes co-ordinated by the JORVIK Group of Attractions. 

Visitors to York will be able to meet ambassadors from Jorvik at next year’s JORVIK Viking Festival, which takes place from 14 – 22 February 2015 and is the largest celebration of Viking culture in the UK, regularly welcoming upwards of 40,000 visitors to the city.  For more details, please visit www.jorvik-viking-festival.co.uk

ENDS

Pictures (links below) show:  Viking ambassadors, Ragnar (Nathan Wade - far left) and Arnleif (Erin Pockley - far right) from the JORVIK Viking Centre with the Lord Mayor of York, Cllr Ian Gillies, and Cabinet Member for Leisure, Culture and Tourism at City of York Council, Cllr Sonja Crisp (second from left), outside York Minster with one of the new twinning signs.

Further images are available for download from: http://news.cision.com/the-jorvik-group-of-attractions

Notes to editors

The ‘Welcome to York – twinned with the Viking City of Jorvik’ signs have been funded, including installation, entirely by the York Archaeological Trust.

Facts about the twinning of towns and cities

• The concept of ‘twinning’ became popular about after the Second World War to help foster good relations between the British people and our continental neighbours, but the concept has since spread globally.
• York is twinned with Dijon, France (1953) and Münster, Germany (1957), as well as its new temporal twinning with Jorvik.
• Other unusual twinnings included Swindon in Wiltshire twinning with Walt Disney World in Florida (2009) and Wincanton in Somerset twinning with Ankh-Morpork, an entirely fictional city dreamed up by Terry Pratchett.  Market Harborough was also twinned with Meerkovo, the fictional home of the meercat Aleksandr Orlov from TV insurance commercials, in 2011.

Facts about York and Jorvik

• York was settled by the Romans in the first century AD, when it was known as Eboracum, and hosted a military barracks
• The Vikings settled in Jorvik from 866-1066, although having integrated themselves into the community of Anglo-Scandinavians, the Viking people remained even after the last Viking king, Harald Hardrada, was killed at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in September 1066.
• The JORVIK Viking Centre opened in April 1984.  The attraction includes a recreation of Coppergate, a real Viking street which was unearthed during archaeological excavations at the site in the late 1970s.  The recreation is not only in the right location, but also at the right level – several metres below the modern pavement – as revealed during the Coppergate Dig.
• Earlier this year, Visit York created a Viking-themed deodorant called “Norse Power” which “attempts to capture the aromas of Viking-era York and the fierce raiders that conquered the city” including “battle gore, sweat, pine, meat, mead, seawater and smoke”.
• JORVIK Viking Centre has welcomed 17 million visitors in the last 30 years, and is now part of a wider group of attractions owned and operated by York Archaeological Trust in the city.  The JORVIK Group includes:
  • o   JORVIK Viking Centre
  • o   DIG
  • o   Barley Hall
  • o   The Richard III Experience at Monk Bar
  • o   The Henry VII Experience at Micklegate Bar
• For more details, please visit www.thejorvikgroup.com

For further media information or photographs, please contact:

Jay Commins

Pyper York Limited

Tel:         01904 500698

Email:    jay@pyperyork.co.uk