FÃÂ¥rö () or in Gutnish is a Baltic Sea island just north of the island of Gotland, itself off mainland Sweden's southeastern coast. It is the second-largest island in the county and a popular summer resort. It has its own language, Faroymal, a dialect of Gutnish.
FÃÂ¥rö is also the name of the populated area () consisting of both FÃÂ¥rö and Gotska Sandön islands. It comprises the same area as the administrative FÃÂ¥rö District, established on 1January 2016.
The island is separated from Gotland by the narrow FÃÂ¥rö-strait, and connected by two car ferries, operated by the Swedish Transport Administration. It has a total area of , of which are water areas or islets.
On the islands of FÃÂ¥rö and Gotland are rock formations called rauk. They are a result of erosion during the Ice age and are unique to Gotland and FÃÂ¥rö.
The medieval FÃÂ¥rö Church is on FÃÂ¥rö. , FÃÂ¥rö Church along with Gotska Sandön Chapel on Gotska Sandön belongs to FÃÂ¥rö parish in Norra Gotlands pastorat.
One of the asteroids in the Asteroid belt, , is named after the island.
The name FÃÂ¥rö (in Gutnish ) is derived from the words , meaning island, and probably , which is a word stem associated with travel like in the Swedish verb ('to travel'). The word FÃÂ¥rö likely means 'the island one has to travel to' or 'the traveler's island'. Mainland Swedes might misinterpret the name FÃÂ¥rö to be derived from , the (standard) Swedish word for sheep, due to the many sheep on the island. That word is absent from Modern Gutnish, which uses the word (which in Swedish means 'lamb').
Carl Linnaeus spent two days in 1741 in FÃÂ¥rö during the expedition in which he surveyed the strategic and military resources of Gotland.
Until the 1990s, FÃÂ¥rö and the North of Gotland were off-limits to foreigners because of a government military installation there. There were large, multilingual signs at the side of the roads informing visitors of this and the prohibition was strictly enforced. After the Cold War ended, the installation (Swedish Coastal Artillery regiment KA 3) was mostly shut down. A relic of the island's military past is a tall radio mast at Holmudden at .
Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman lived and died on FÃÂ¥rö and several of his films were filmed there, among them Through a Glass Darkly (1961), Persona (1966), Hour of the Wolf (1968), Shame (1968), The Passion of Anna (1969), and Scenes from a Marriage (1973), as well as Liv UllmannâÂÂs Faithless (2000), based on a Bergman screenplay. The Bergman Week is a tribute to the filmmaker held on the island every June. FÃÂ¥rö itself is the subject of Bergman's documentary films FÃÂ¥rö Document (1970) and FÃÂ¥rö Document 1979.
Andrei Tarkovsky wanted to film The Sacrifice on FÃÂ¥rö but was denied access by the military, so it was filmed further south on Gotland at När instead.
Mia Hansen-Løve filmed and set her film Bergman Island (2021) on FÃÂ¥rö.
An annual event on FÃÂ¥rö is "FÃÂ¥rönatta" (FÃÂ¥rö Night), held in September, during which restaurants and bars stay open all night, craft stands are set up and the church holds a midnight Mass.
Several families on FÃÂ¥rö, often originating from larger cities such as Gothenburg and Stockholm, are locally referred to as the FÃÂ¥rö frälse. These families own significant amounts of property on the island, typically in the form of small hamlets used as private retreats. The land was originally owned by the local government and was sold to Swedish citizensâÂÂoften those with military service or a clean legal recordâÂÂafter it was deemed surplus to military requirements.
Notable families include:
The WÃÂ¥llberg family
The Elfving family
The Digerhuvud coast with Bjärge nature reserve is the largest stack area in Sweden, with hundreds of stacks along a part of the coast. Close by is the Helgumannen fishing village. The coast is not suited for swimming due to its depth (up to close to the shore), and its strong currents.
An asteroid in the Asteroid belt, 10102 Digerhuvud, is named after the area.
The FÃÂ¥rö Lighthouse lies on the island's northeastern point. It is high and was built in 1846 and 1847.
The Langhammars peninsula and the Langhammars nature reserve on north-western FÃÂ¥rö are rocky beaches with Ice age stone monoliths known as rauks. Langhammars was the setting for Ingmar Bergman's film Shame.
The long, sandy Sudersand beach on north-eastern FÃÂ¥rö lies next to Sudersands Semesterby which rents cabins to tourists.