Björke Church

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Björke Church

The Church of Björke ( Swedish Björke kyrka ) is a country church on the Swedish island of Gotland . She belongs to the parish (Swedish församling ) Björke in the diocese of Visby .

location

The church is located inland Gotland between roads 142 and 143, 16 km south of Visby , 2 km south of Roma and 30 km north of Hemse . It lies in a small deciduous forest. The place Roma belongs partly to the parish Björke and partly to the parish Roma.

Church building

The church consists of an almost cubic nave and to the east of it a smaller, long, straight-end choir of almost the same length as the nave. He has an attached sacristy in the north. The church is made of white plastered limestone and has a tiled gable roof . A small, wood-clad roof turret is located over the western part of the nave. The main entrance to the church is in the south facade of the nave, but there are also portals on the north side of the nave and the south side of the choir. The interior of the church is vaulted. The choir has two vaults and the nave has four vaults with a central column. The oldest part of the church is the western part of the choir with a Romanesque portal from the beginning of the 13th century. In the middle of the 13th century, the nave was built, which has a walled-up tower arch in its western wall to the planned but never built tower. In the middle of the 14th century, the former apse in the east was demolished and the choir was enlarged to double its length. The sacristy was added in 1860. The small roof turret has a strange shape for Gotland with classicistic details inspired by the Middle Ages . The atmospheric interior is characterized by a comprehensive restoration from 1910 to 1912, when, among other things, the windows were given their current shape, which imitates medieval shapes. The stained glass in the east window is from 1910, but the medieval tracery has been preserved.

Furnishing

  • The font dates from the 13th century.
  • A cross also dates from the 13th century.
  • A sacrament house is from the 14th century.
  • The pulpit is one of the oldest on Gotland and dates from 1594. The canopy and stairs are from 1745.
  • The organ was built in 1909 by Eskil Lundén from Gothenburg . It has eleven registers and two manuals and pedals .

  • Church window

  • pulpit

literature

  • Erland Lagerlöf, Gunnar Svahnström: The churches of Gotland. Stein, Kiel 1991, ISBN 3-89392-049-8 , p. 99.
  • Våra kyrkor. Klarkullens förlag, Västervik 1990, ISBN 91-971561-0-8 , p. 683 (Swedish).

Web links

Commons : Björke kyrka  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 57 ° 30 '26.8 "  N , 18 ° 25' 16.9"  E