Church of Lau
The Church of Lau (Swedish Lau kyrka ) is one of the largest country churches on the Swedish Baltic island of Gotland . It mostly dates from the 13th century and combines elements of the Romanesque and Gothic styles .
description
The three-aisled Romanesque nave , which dates from the first half of the 13th century, is continued in a Gothic choir with a sacristy , which was about the same width but higher, and was added around 1300 . The Gothic choir replaced the cross-shaped or transept-like choir with chapels (similar to that of St. Clemens in Visby ), the remains of which are still visible on the southern gable of today's choir. Instead of a tower, the church has a roof turret .
The very large for a country church building with impressive acoustics , high arches, powerful base- and kapitellverzierten column is speculative with a function as a sanctuary or together with the Vamlingbo Church as a special medal Church of the Dominicans connected from Visby. The monks are said to have used the two churches for sermons to the rural population. The church has five entrances, four of which are high, magnificent portals with an ornamentation of plants and figures. The master, also represented in Ala and Alskog , who was named "Globus" in art history and is considered a student of Calcarius or Byzantios, is considered to be the creator of the capital of the north portal .
The culturally and historically valuable inventory of the church includes:
- the baptismal font from the late 12th century probably comes from the master Sighraf
- the triumphal cross from the middle of the 13th century is one of the largest in Scandinavia .
- the painted winged altar dates from the 15th century
- the bell , which was cast in the 15th century - according to the style - in a workshop from the environment of the Lübeck gunsmith Johann Apengeter (he himself worked in the 14th century) is now in the nave.
- the iron medieval chandeliers
A few meters north of the church are the ruins of a castle (defense or watchtower) from the 12th century, which was used as a rectory ( prästgård ) after a renovation . Both north and south of the church are grave fields from the Iron Age .
literature
- Marita Jonsson, Sven-Olof Lindquist: Gotland cultural guide. Almqvist & Wiksell, Uppsala 1993, ISBN 91-88036-09-X , p. 171.
- Erland Lagerlöf, Gunnar Svahnström: The churches of Gotland. Stein, Kiel 1991, ISBN 3-89392-049-8 , pp. 188-190.
Individual evidence
- ^ E. Lagerlöf, B. Stolt: Lau kyrka . In: Sveriges kyrkor . 1975.
- ↑ J. Roosvall: globe. En gotländsk stenmästare verksam omkr. 1160-80 . In: Gotländskt arkiv . 1942.
- ^ RAÄ number Lau 40: 1
- ↑ RAÄ number Lau 7: 1
Web links
- guteinfo (Swedish)
- på Gotland ( Memento from August 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (Swedish)
- Orgelanders (Swedish)
- När-Lau församling (website of the parish, Swedish)
- Building register at Riksantikvarieämbetet (Swedish)
Coordinates: 57 ° 16 ′ 58.5 ″ N , 18 ° 37 ′ 12.6 ″ E