AbstractWe present the results from our Swift/VLT legacy survey, a VLT Large Programme aimed at characterizing the host galaxies of a homogeneously selected sample of Swift gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The immediate goals are to determine the host luminosity function, study the effects of reddening, determine the fraction of Lyα emitters in the hosts, and obtain redshifts for targets without a reported one. We have carefully selected a sample, obeying strict and well-defined criteria: 69 targets in total. Among the results is a large optical detection rate, the lack of extremely red objects (only one possible case in the sample), and 15 new GRB redshifts with the mean redshift of the host sample assessed to be 〈z〉 ≳ 2.2.