YORK’S world-famous Jorvik Viking Centre this morning welcomed its 20 MILLIONTH visitor.

The Logie family, from Edinburgh – who had booked their tickets in advance – were blissfully unaware until this morning that their visit was special.

Much to their surprise, they were greeted at 9.40am today with a fountain of sparkles and a horde of Vikings welcoming them to Jorvik.

The family were presented with a handmade replica of a Viking-age key - giving them access to a lifetime of return visits to the attraction - plus a gold commemorative coin and vouchers to spend in the Jorvik gift shop.

Nicola Logie said it was 'very exciting' to be greeted as the 20 millionth visitor. "It has clearly been a very busy attraction over the years," she said. "20 million is a huge number."

James Logie said: “The ride was an amazing experience – all the sights and sounds – it just felt like we were experiencing what it was like here in Viking times."

Jorvik’s director of attractions Sarah Maltby said their visit was a 'huge landmark.'

She said: “Twenty million people have explored York’s Viking heritage with our unique ride through a recreation of this city street as it would have looked over 1000 years ago.

“This is a real testament to how much interest and enthusiasm there continues to be for the Vikings and the remarkable discoveries that we made during the Coppergate dig.”

The 20 millionth visitor arrived just a few days after the organisation behind the creation of Jorvik, The York Archaeological Trust, launched celebrations to mark 50 years since it was founded in 1972. 

The Coppergate Dig took place from 1976 to 1981, revealing the remarkably well-preserved remains of Viking-age Coppergate, which inspired the Trust to set up an innovative new visitor attraction that has influenced a host of other museums and attractions around the world.

Jorvik itself opened 38 years ago, in April 1984. The Viking Centre that visitors enjoy today is actually the fourth incarnation of the attraction.

A major refurbishment in 2001 saw the original time cars - which took visitors back through a time tunnel to travel around an undrground recreation of the Viking city - replaced with the time capsules that visitors use today.

A further update took place in 2010, which remained in place until the Boxing Day floods of 2015, when the attraction was inundated with water from the nearby River Foss.

Flood damage required most of the attraction to be rebuilt – and reimagined – with the current version of Jorvik opening in April 2017.

“The concept, however, has remained the same since the first designs for Jorvik back in the early 1980s,” Sarah said.

“We show visitors how we believe that Viking-age Coppergate would have looked, based upon what we unearthed here during the archaeological dig, and over 30 years of research undertaken by our own teams which followed.

“We now have people who visited during Jorvik’s early days returning with children and even grandchildren of their own.

“We have even more recreated smells now than we did when we first opened, but the sometimes unpleasant aromas of the backyards of the 10th century remain in visitors’ memories for years afterwards!”

Jorvik’s landmark 20 millionth visitor came as the team behind the attraction are now planning a similar museum for Roman times.

Planning permission has been granted for a major new development project, known as The Roman Quarter, that will include a two-year archaeological dig and the creation of a Roman-themed visitor attraction and museum called Eboracum on Rougier Street.