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Village outside Uppsala in Sweden

Gamla Uppsala (, Old Uppsala) is a parish and a village outside Uppsala in Sweden. It had 17,973 inhabitants in 2016. As early as the 3rd century AD and the 4th century AD and onwards, it was an important religious, economic and political centre. Early written sources show that already during prehistory, Gamla Uppsala was widely famous in Northern Europe as the residence of Swedish kings of the legendary Yngling dynasty. In fact, the oldest Scandinavian sources, such as Ynglingatal, the Westrogothic law and the Gutasaga talk of the King of the Swedes (Suiones) as the "King at Uppsala". It was the main centre of the Swedes. During the Middle Ages, it was the largest village of Uppland, the eastern part of which probably originally formed the core of the complex of properties belonging to the Swedish Crown, the so called Uppsala öd, of which the western part consisted of the royal estate itself, kungsgården. It was also the location of the Thing of all Swedes which was a thing (general assembly) held from prehistoric times to the Middle Ages, at the end of February or early March. It was held in conjunction with a great fair called Disting, and a Norse religious celebration called Dísablót. The Law of Uppland says that it was at this assembly that the king proclaimed that the fleet levy would be summoned for warfare during the summer, and all the crews, rowers, commanders and ships were decided. It was not only the Norse cultic centre, it also became Sweden's archbishopric in 1164.

Gamla Uppsala lies on Fyris Wolds, a cultivated plain in the valley of the River Fyris which is densely populated in its southern part, while the northern part consists of farms.

It is a testimony to the sanctity of the location in the mindset of followers of medieval Norse religion that Gamla Uppsala was the last stronghold of pre Christian, Norse Germanic kingship. During the 1070s and 1080s there appears to have been a renaissance of Norse religion with the magnificent Temple at Uppsala described in a contested account through an eye witness by Adam of Bremen. Adam of Bremen relates of the Uppsala of the 1070s and describes it as a pagan cult centre with the enormous Temple at Uppsala containing wooden statues of Odin, Thor and Freyr. Sometime in the 1080s the Christian king Ingi was exiled for refusing to perform the sacrifices. Instead Blot Sweyn was elected, but he was killed by Ingi who could then reclaim his throne. Its great importance in Swedish tradition led to the location of Sweden's first Archbishopric in Gamla Uppsala in 1164. In practice, however, it had lost its strategic importance when it gradually lost ready access to navigable waters as the land rose owing to the constant post glacial rebound.

People have been buried in Gamla Uppsala for 2,000 years, since the area rose above water. Originally there were between 2,000 and 3,000 mounds in the area but most have become farmland, gardens and quarries. Today only 250 barrows remain. In the parish there are more than 1,000 preserved archaeological remains, but many more have been removed by agriculture. There are cairns of splintered stone that reveal that the area was settled during the Nordic Bronze Age, but most of the grave fields are from the Iron Age and the Viking Age. The great grave field south of the Royal Mounds is from the Roman Iron Age and the Germanic Iron Age. Near the vicarage, a few unburnt graves from the Viking Age have been excavated. Under the present church in Gamla Uppsala have been found the remains of one or several large wooden buildings. Some archaeologists believe that they are the remains of the Temple of Uppsala, while others hold that comes from an early Christian wooden church. Churches were often built on pre Christian sacred sites, though. Adjacent to the present church there is a plateau of clay, the Plateau of the Royal Estate (Kungsgårdsplatån), on which archaeologists have found the remains of a large hall.