Bunge Church

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Bunge Church
Church in Bunge from the south
Wall painting

The Church of Bunge ( Swedish Bunge kyrka ) is a country church on Gotland. It is located in the parish (swed. Församling ) Bunge at the northern end of the main island Gotland , 49 km northeast of Visby and 2 km west of Fårösund . It belongs to the diocese of Visby .

Church building

Apart from the massive, fortress-like tower , the church is a uniform, high Gothic structure from the beginning of the 14th century. Together with Lärbro , it is the largest church in northern Gotland. The proud structure was lost when the roof was lowered during a restoration in the mid-19th century. The tall and spacious nave is divided into two parts by slender columns, the front of which has images of Christ, Mary, John the Baptist and a devil at its base. An unusually sculpted representation of the mass can be found on the right vaulted console of the south wall.

In the Middle Ages the church was a fortified church. The high churchyard wall with four medieval doors still contains loopholes . The church was last restored in 1971 according to plans by the architect Leif Olsson.

inner space

The church has frescoes from around 1400; a quarrel between knights is depicted on the north wall. According to tradition, there was once a great battle in front of the building; one interpretation of the paintings says that it is this battle that is depicted, while others believe that this is the martyrdom of the Thebaic Legion during the persecution of Christians under Emperor Decius .

Poor box in the church of Bunge

One of the inventory items is a medieval stone armpit that bears the signature “Lafrans made this stone” in runic script. It probably once served as a pedestal for a crucifix. The organ was built in 1756 for the French Reformed Church in Stockholm by the then most progressive organ builder Jonas Gren & Peter Straehle. It was bought by the Bunge municipality in 1870 and restored by Olof Ryden in Stockholm in 1952. Another restoration carried out in 1977 by Mads Kjersgaard from Uppsala restored the original appearance.

Surroundings

Next to the church are the ruins of the medieval rectory "Munkhuset", which was a tall and stately building with ornate portals and window openings. It was probably built in the 14th century when the choir and nave were being built. Sculptured building details of the rectory are kept in the Bunge open-air museum, which is now part of the site.

photos

  • Churchyard wall with loopholes

  • Buttress on the south side

literature

  • Marita Jonsson, Sven-Olof Lindquist: Gotland cultural guide. Almqvist & Wiksell, Uppsala 1993, ISBN 91-88036-09-X , p. 57.
  • Erland Lagerlöf, Gunnar Svahnström: The churches of Gotland. Stein, Kiel 1991, ISBN 3-89392-049-8 .

Web links

Commons : Church of Bunge  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 57 ° 51 ′ 13.4 ″  N , 19 ° 1 ′ 24.5 ″  E