Mästerby Church

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Mästerby Church
Mästerby Church

The Mästerby Church ( Swedish Mästerby kyrka ) is a country church on the Swedish island of Gotland . It is the parish church of the parish (swed. Församling ) Sanda, Västergarn och Mästerby församling and belongs to the diocese of Visby . It is one of only 17 remaining rural churches that have a choir with an apse .

The oldest areas can be found in the nave and choir and were made from limestone towards the end of the 12th century . The church tower was added around 1240 . In the course of the 14th century the nave was raised and vaulted, and the windows were enlarged. In 1790 a sacristy was added to the church . The interior of the church is characterized by a large number of frescoes , which were created between the 15th and 17th centuries.

The oldest is probably the Madonna picture with two angels in the northern niche of the side altar . The year 1199 is assumed to be the date of origin. Above the triumphal arch , Christ can be seen as judge at the Last Judgment , with the gate to paradise on the right and the souls of people being weighed by the Archangel Michael on the left . Christ can be seen on the ceiling, under whose feet the three continents known at the time, Africa, Asia and Europe lie.

The oldest inventory items include a baptismal font of Byzantios from 1160 and the triumphal cross of about the same age .

The name of the parish is first recorded in 1270 as Maestraby and was taken over from a homestead. The second syllable is therefore to be interpreted as homestead or courtyard. The first syllable contains either the superlative mestr of altgutnischen word mikil for large or the German borrowed maisteri for champions.

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. 680.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Svenskt local dictionary . Språk- och folkminnesinstitutet, Uppsala 2003, p. 217, ISBN 91-7229-020-X .

Coordinates: 57 ° 28 ′ 11.8 "  N , 18 ° 18 ′ 14.2"  E