Jorvik Viking Centre

The Jorvik Viking Centre is a museum and visitor attraction in York, England. It was created by the York Archaeological Trust in 1984. Its name is derived from the Old Norse name Jórvík for York. The centre was badly damaged by flooding over Christmas 2015, but was repaired and reopened on 8 April 2017.

Cravens, a firm of confectioners was founded in 1803. Cravens relocated from their factory in Coppergate in central York in 1966. Between 1976 and 1981, after the factory was demolished, and prior to the building of the Coppergate Shopping Centre (an open-air pedestrian shopping centre which now occupies the enlarged site), the York Archaeological Trust, a charity founded in 1972 by Peter Addyman, conducted extensive excavations in the area. Well-preserved remains of some of the timber buildings of the Viking city of Jorvík were discovered, along with workshops, fences, animal pens, privies, pits and wells, together with durable materials and artefacts of the time, such as pottery, metalwork and bones. Unusually, wood, leather, textiles, and plant and animal remains from the period around 900 AD, were also discovered to be preserved in oxygen-deprived wet clay. In all, over 40,000 objects were recovered.

The trust recreated the excavated part of Jorvik on the site, peopled with figures, sounds and smells, as well as pigsties, fish market and latrines, with a view to bringing the Viking city fully to life using innovative interpretative methods. The Jorvik Viking Centre, which was designed by John Sunderland, opened in April 1984. Since its formation, the Centre has had close to 20 million visitors.

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