Fröjel Church

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Church of Fröjel from the east
Kastal at the church of Fröjel
Labyrinth at Fröjel Church

The Church of Fröjel ( Swedish Fröjel kyrka ) is a country church on the Swedish island of Gotland . It belongs to the parish (swed. Församling ) Fröjel and the diocese of Visby . The saddle church is one of the most beautifully located on Gotland.

Fröjel Church

location

The church is located in Fröjel on the west coast of the island, 34 km south of Visby , making it one of Gotland's churches closest to the sea. It stands a little higher on a beach wall with a wide view towards Stora Karlsö and Lilla Karlsö to the west.

Church building

The church is made of limestone . It consists of a choir closed by a straight wall with a sacristy in the north, an equally wide but longer nave and a west tower. The church tower is supported on its west side by a wide buttress . The nave has portals in the north and south , the choir in the south. An original access to the tower is blocked by the longwall.

The longhouse from the end of the 12th century is the oldest; it was completed by the tower in the first half of the 13th century. The large choir, which probably replaced an older one, and the same old sacristy were built around 1300 as the first step in the construction of a new church that was never completed. The facade and the nave are made of ashlar.

The Romanesque nave portals are kept simple. The architecture of the choir is Gothic. The portal has rich architectural designs with a crowning triangular gable. The south window of the choir and the three east windows are still original. The south window of the nave dates from around 1850.

Inside the choir is covered by a brick cross vault. The nave is covered by a barrel vault made of wooden segmental arches , which was inserted between 1935 and 1938 as a replacement for a flat inner roof to expose the brick surrounds of the triumphal arch. The part of the tower that is connected to the church is covered with a wooden roof.

In the choir there are paintings on the wall from the beginning of the 14th century and a closet with richly decorated doors. The church has a few remarkable inventory items: The richly sculptured triumphal cross dates from around 1300. The baptismal font has a foot from the 12th century and a font with naive figures from the 14th century. The pulpit dates from around 1600 with originally painted pictures of the evangelists . The high sandstone altar was made in 1634.

Surroundings

Grave ball on the grave field of Sälle near Fröjel

Fröjel was once an important port for the Vikings. Today a meadow covers the silted harbor and the burial ground of the Vikings. Excavators came across the skeleton of a woman with her face turned down and her arms crossed behind her back.

To the southeast of the church there are remains of an old hill fort . To the north of the church are the ruins of a medieval castle . The original height of the square tower is unknown. Bar holes on the inside indicate multiple floors. The churchyard has two entrance portals, the west of which, along with a piece of the adjacent wall, is medieval and dates from the late 13th century. Between the eastern entrance portal and the church there is a labyrinth of unknown age within the churchyard , a so-called Troy castle .

At least two Gotland picture stones are connected to Fröjel . One is the "Härstain" (also known as Herrstain, Ärestain and Höjestain). It is one of the few picture stones on Gotland that is in its original place. It comes from the Germanic Iron Age . The original inscription is no longer visible. The second picture stone came to light in 1999 during excavations of pre-Christian tombs northwest of the church. The stone was broken in two. One half was at the head of a grave and the other half at the foot of it. It dates from around 700 or 800 BC. And was reused as a tombstone in two parts perhaps a hundred years later.

etymology

The name Fröjel , like other Danish and Swedish place names with the prefix Frö- or Frej- (e.g. Frejlev on Lolland or Frøslev near Aabenraa ), goes back to the goddess Freya .

inventory

  • The choir with pulpit and triumphal arch

  • Triumphal Cross approx. 1300

  • The altar in front of the three windows in the choir

  • Pulpit from approx. 1600 (?)

  • The font from the 12th century comes from the master Byzantios , the bowl from the 14th century

literature

  • Marita Jonsson, Sven-Olof Lindquist: Gotland cultural guide. Almqvist & Wiksell, Uppsala 1993, ISBN 91-88036-09-X , page 159
  • Erland Lagerlöf, Gunnar Svahnström: The churches of Gotland. Stein, Kiel 1991, ISBN 3-89392-049-8 , pages 136-138

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Fröjel. In: Gotland University. Retrieved February 26, 2012 .
  2. ↑ Fröjel. In: Gotland Archaeological Field School. Retrieved February 26, 2012 .

Web links

Commons : Church of Fröjel (page)  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
Commons : Church of Fröjel (category)  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 57 ° 20 ′ 8 ″  N , 18 ° 11 ′ 23 ″  E