Alva Church

Alva Church - side of the choir

The Church of Alva ( Swedish Alva kyrka ) is located south of Hemse on the Swedish island of Gotland . It has a stepped silhouette and, due to the very wide, low tower, unusual proportions. The tower was supposed to be twice as high, but unknown causes stopped construction.

Construction sequence

The choir and the apse , which is rarely rounded on Gotland , were built at the beginning of the 13th century, while the nave was added later. All parts were built from sandstone . 100 years later, construction began of from limestone built the tower to the west, but was not created in the planned amount.

The portals

The large Gothic portal in the south also shows signs of interruption. It gives the impression that its details have been put together quite arbitrarily by inexperienced builders. Some of the remaining parts of the portal were used as a ceiling in a staircase in the northern tower wall.

The pillars of the choir portal stand on bases with carved animal reliefs, possibly created by the Gotlandic master Sighraf .

• Alva Church
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  Alva Church

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  Alva Church

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  North portal

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  Triumphal cross

The portal of the nave, today placed on the north side, has carved capitals on which an eagle biting over a ring and a man's head can be seen.

Interior

The altar of limestone , unusually, has a base. Behind it there is a Romanesque baptismal font with reliefs, probably a work by the stone master Hegwald . The great triumphal cross is a work from the middle of the 13th century. The north wall of the nave is decorated with lime paintings from the late Middle Ages . They were probably carried out by the “Master of 1520” immediately before the Reformation . At the entrance to the sacristy there is a medieval tombstone with the inscription: "On January 1st in the year of the Lord 1317 Botvi, Botvid's housewife in Alva, who may rest in peace, died".

See also

• Country Church (Gotland)

literature

• Marita Jonsson, Sven-Olof Lindquist: Gotland cultural guide. Almqvist & Wiksell, Uppsala 1993, ISBN 91-88036-09-X .
• Erland Lagerlöf, Gunnar Svahnström: The churches of Gotland. Stein, Kiel 1991, ISBN 3-89392-049-8 .

Web links

Commons : Alva kyrka  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• guteinfo: Alva kyrka (Swedish, with pictures)
• Parish website about the Church (Swedish)
• Orgelanders (Swedish, with pictures)
• PaGotland ( Memento from August 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (Swedish)
• Building register at Riksantikvarieämbetet (Swedish)

Coordinates: 57 ° 12 ′ 27.1 ″  N , 18 ° 21 ′ 41.1 ″  E