Eskelhem Church

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Eskelhem Church

The Eskelhem Church ( Swedish Eskelhems kyrka ) is a country church on the Swedish island of Gotland . It is one of the parish churches of the parish (swed. Församling ) Eskelhem-Tofta and belongs to the diocese of Visby .

location

The church lies inland 17 km south of Visby , 11 km north of Klintehamn and 15 km west of Roma .

Church building

In the place of today's church from the 13th century, there was already a wooden church, the remains of the foundation of which have been preserved under the floor of the nave. These were discovered during the restoration in 1960. This suggests that Eskelhem was the site of a church on Gotland in the early days of Christianity.

The construction of today's church began around the year 1200 and the nave is, despite many renovations, the oldest part of the church and mostly dates from this time. In the middle of the 13th century (approx. 1240) the west wall of the nave was torn down and the church tower was added to the nave. This was similar to the tower of St. Nicolai's Church in Visby . The Gothic , just closing choir was built in the middle of the 14th century.

In the second half of the 13th century the frescoes in the vault of the nave were made. In addition, remains of wall paintings by the passion master from the 15th century can be found in some places. The baptismal font comes from the workshop of Byzantios from the end of the 12th century and the triumphal cross from the middle of the 13th century. A tombstone for Halvid in the adjacent cemetery bears the year of death 1338.

Surname

The name Eskelhem is first documented in a medieval runic inscription as yskilaim . The suffix means courtyard or living space, whereas the meaning of the prefix is ​​unknown.

literature

  • Sveriges kyrkor. Konsthistoriskt inventarium. Gotland , Volume 2: Rute setting . Ed. Johnny Roosval, General Staff Litografiska Anstalts Förlag, Stockholm 1935.
  • Våra kyrkor . Klarkullens förlag, Västervik 1990, ISBN 91-971561-0-8 , p. 681.

Web links

Commons : Church of Eskelhem  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Svenskt local dictionary . Språk- och folkminnesinstitutet, Uppsala 2003, p. 69, ISBN 91-7229-020-X .

Coordinates: 57 ° 29 ′ 23 "  N , 18 ° 12 ′ 35.7"  E