Visby domkyrka
Region Gotland · Gotland County
Visby Sankta Maria domkyrka is both a parish church and a place of pilgrimage for tourists and summer Gotlanders. During Medieval Week the church becomes an ecclesiastical centre for the week's thousands of medieval travellers. The church is the only one of the town's medieval churches that has been preserved intact.
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About the church
Visby domkyrka or Visby Sankta Maria domkyrka is a church building located in Visby on Gotland. It is the cathedral of the Diocese of Visby and the parish church of Visby domkyrkoförsamling (Visby Cathedral Parish) within the Church of Sweden.
Construction of the church began in the late 12th century, and it was consecrated in 1225. It was originally built as a Romanesque basilica but was already rebuilt as a hall church in the 1250s.
Sankta Maria was probably built for visiting German merchants, and from 1225 to 1429 there were two parish priests in the parish: one for German speakers and one for the Gutnish parishioners. The church originally had no geographical area of responsibility of its own, but after the town's earlier parish churches were destroyed and abandoned in the 1530s, Sankta Maria became the parish church for the whole of Visby town.
After the Reformation the Diocese of Visby was established in 1572 and Sankta Maria was given the status of cathedral. Since Gotland was at that time under Danish rule, the diocese came to be led by a superintendent. After the Peace of Brömsebro in 1645 the diocese belonged to Sweden, but it was not until 1772 that the head of the diocese was given the title of bishop.
The text has been translated from the article Visby domkyrka on Swedish Wikipedia and may be used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
