Visby Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of Visby ( Swedish Visby domkyrka ) or the Visby Cathedral , which is also under the original name St. Mary Church is known, is the only remaining medieval main church of the old Hanseatic city of Visby on the Swedish island of Gotland . It has been the Episcopal Church of the Visby Diocese of the Church of Sweden since 1572 .
history
The construction of St. Mary's Church in Visby on Gotland began in the 12th century, initially as a three-aisled Romanesque basilica with a transept at the eastern end. The lower area of the west tower also dates from this period. It was built as a house installation from the limestone native to the island . The church was built by the Gotland drivers , the German sailors and merchants who visited Visby in the Middle Ages as a trading metropolis of the eastern Baltic Sea and a link in the trade of the Hanseatic cities on the southern Baltic coast with Russia and the Baltic States, i.e. a pure guest church, which only later, so how Germans settled permanently in the city, became the parish church of the German population of Visby. The money for the construction was mostly collected on the cogs on the Gotland trip. In 1225 the church was consecrated to the Virgin Mary . The church was rebuilt and expanded several times. The nave was enlarged and turned into a hall church . The transept was doubled and also received a choir and two east towers. The Hanseatic merchants thought practically and moved another floor into the nave as storage floor, so that merchandise could also be safely stored in the church.This can still be seen from the outside by the winch hooks on which the tackles were hung around the Goods to be lifted onto the warehouse floors. The common cash register of the Hanseatic Office in Novgorod , the Peterhof , was also kept in St. Marien in Visby in accordance with the provisions of the Novgorod Schra during the times when the Novgorod drivers were not in the office. Due to its double use, Saint Maria is a trading church , as it was at the Peterhof in Novgorod.
Another major renovation and extension followed around 1300. A large chapel was added on the south side of the church. From the outside, the nave became a basilica again. The west tower received its current height in 1423. Today's tower domes are, however, an 18th century design; they used to be high and pointed, as shown by old Visby engravings from the 16th century.
Building plastic and sculptures
Gargoyles on the south chapel
portal
Detail: winch in front of the warehouse floor
In the course of the armed conflicts of the late Middle Ages, all other medieval churches in Visby fell victim to a storm attack by the Lübeck allied with Gustaf Wasa on the city occupied by the Danish follower Severin Norby and burned down. Since then they have been preserved as ruins and shape the cityscape to a very special degree, the church of the Franciscan monastery of St. Karin is considered the most beautiful of them. Since then, the former German church of Sankt Maria is also the only church in Visby where services can be held. In 1572 the Marienkirche became the episcopal church of the diocese of Visby and thus the cathedral . In Swedish usage, the old name and the new function merged into Visby Sankt Maria Domkyrka . Since 2003 St. Mary's Church has also been the cathedral of the Church of Sweden abroad .
Furnishing
The church has a very rich interior. The stained glass on the windows from recent times is striking . In addition to the baroque and neo-Gothic high altars, St. Mary's Church has a very important limestone fifth from the 12th century. The pulpit , which was given to the community in 1684 and carved from walnut , is a north German work that was imported from Lübeck. The theme of the triumphal cross takes on a triumphant figure of Christ from the 13th century. The church has a variety of epitaphs dating from the 14th to the 18th centuries. An epitaph of the painter Jost de Laval for example, reminding the Mayor of Lübeck Bartholomeus Tinnappel that the Northern Seven Years' War went down in 1566 as Admiral of the Lübeck fleet after a sea battle in Gotland with its flagship and large parts of the fleet because its fleet anchored unfavorable. The storm is said to have killed 6,000 sailors and soldiers.
Baptismal font
pulpit
Pulpit stairs
Triumphant Christ
Organs
The cathedral church has various organs : the main organ; a small choir organ (also called "Marienorgel", from 1984), as well as various smaller organs.
The main organ comes from the workshop of the Swedish organ builder Åckerman & Lund from 1892. Most of the original organ has been preserved. The instrument has 25 stops on two manuals and a pedal . The playing and stop actions are mechanical. The instrument is equipped with Baker machines.
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
- Coupling : I / I (super-octave coupling), II / I (also as sub-octave coupling), I / P, II / P
Chapels
The Swertingkapelle was as atonement chapel for from a Rostock originating family mayor of the town of Visby Hermann Swerting built. He was executed as mayor in 1342. His sons - one of them, Simon Swerting , was later mayor of Lübeck - donated the chapel. "The sum that was paid as atonement for the murder of his father, he used together with his brother to purchase the Ovendorf estate, the income of which was transferred to a vicariate that was built in an atonement chapel in Wisby in honor of his father . " The chapel is now a memorial for all those who remained at sea, including the victims of the sinking of Estonia in 1994 and the tsunami triggered by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake .
literature
- Robert Bohn : Wisby - The nucleus of the Hanseatic Baltic Sea trade. In: Jörgen Bracker (Ed.): The Hanseatic League. Reality of life and myth. 4th bibliographically updated edition of the text volume on the Hamburg Hanse exhibition from 1989. Schmidt-Römhild, Lübeck 2006, ISBN 3-7950-1275-9 , pp. 269–282.
- Antjekathrin Graßmann (Ed.): Lübeckische Geschichte . 2nd revised edition. Schmidt-Römhild, Lübeck 1989, ISBN 3-7950-3203-2 .
- Marita Jonsson, Sven-Olof Lindquist: Gotland cultural guide. Almqvist & Wiksell, Uppsala 1993, ISBN 91-88036-09-X .
- Ulrich Quack: Gotland. The largest island in the Baltic Sea. A Swedish province of particular charm. Culture, history, landscape. DuMont, Cologne 1991, ISBN 3-7701-2415-4 .
Sources and Notes
- ^ Marita Jonsson, Sven-Olof Lindquist: Gotland culture guide. Almqvist & Wiksell, Uppsala 1993, ISBN 91-88036-09-X , p. 113.
- ↑ The view of Braun / Hogenberg , however, gives a pure fantasy picture of the city of Visby and incorrectly shows the cathedral with two west towers.
- ↑ The late Gothic altarpiece from a Lübeck workshop was sold to the country church in Källunge as early as 1684 . (see Quack 1991, p. 204)
- ↑ Epitaph Tinnappel
- ^ Emil Ferdinand Fehling : Lübeckische Ratslinie Lübeck 1925 No. 657; History of Lübeck, p. 422.
- ↑ More information about the organ ( Memento of the original from October 31, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Note: near Travemünde
- ↑ Quotation from Emil Ferdinand Fehling: Lübeckische Ratslinie Lübeck 1925 No. 657; History of Lübeck, No. 387
Web links
Coordinates: 57 ° 38 ′ 30 ″ N , 18 ° 17 ′ 53 ″ E