Martebo Church
The Church of Martebo ( Swedish Martebo kyrka ) is a 14th century country church on the Baltic island of Gotland in Sweden .
It is, especially with its high Gothic portals , created by the master Fabulator , a unique monument to the sculptural art of this epoch on Gotland. It was rebuilt around 1330. A high nave and a slightly lower choir with sacristy were added to the small Romanesque tower .
The sculptures on the capitals of the three portals come from the workshop of the stonemason Egypticus . They are adorned with scenes from the life of Christ . North and choir portal show u. a. the Annunciation and Nativity, the Adoration of the Wise Men, the Child Murder in Bethlehem and the Flight into Egypt. In the portal of the nave , the Baptism of Christ, the Passion, the Burial and Christ in Limbo, where a devil is bound, can be seen. In a niche next to the portal there is a statue of St. Dionysius .
A prayer chamber is located on the south side of the church. The small room, which is only connected to the church through a so-called hagioscope , a four-pass opening, was intended for people who were not allowed to attend church services with the rest of the congregation ( leprosy column ).
In 1970 the frescoes typical of the time of construction , including dragons, were discovered. The vault of the nave received an ornamental canopy in the traditional Gotland style.
The baptismal font is a work of the "mussel cupa type" from the middle of the 13th century. Medieval tombstones lie in the floor ; one bears the year 1392. The pulpit from the mid-16th century is one of the oldest on the island.
The picture stones
Two stone fragments of the oldest tradition (400–600 AD) have been built into the church. One shows a spiral motif , the other a vortex wheel . This stone, with its unusual runes , was taken from the church in 1902 and initially exhibited in Stockholm ; it is now in Gotlands Fornsal in Visby .
In 1971 a stone was found during the restoration of the church. It was slammed onto a rectangular shape; its current height is 128 cm. The content of the picture follows the motif on the stone in the neighboring parish of Hangvar. This is one of only two dragon-themed stones found on Gotland. It provides valuable information on the Hangvar image stone fragment. One of the two signs with two animal heads has a parallel in a fibula form of simultaneous metal art. The stone is placed in the Karnhaus of the church.
literature
- Marita Jonsson, Sven-Olof Lindquist: Gotland cultural guide. Almqvist & Wiksell, Uppsala 1993, ISBN 91-88036-09-X , p. 80.
- Erland Lagerlöf, Gunnar Svahnström: The churches of Gotland. Stein, Kiel 1991, ISBN 3-89392-049-8 .
- Erik Nylén , Jan Peder Lamm: Picture stones on Gotland. 2nd, expanded and completed German edition. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1991, ISBN 3-529-01823-6 .
- Sigmund Oehrl: Gotland's picture stones. Problems and new ways of their documentation, reading and interpretation (= Studia archaeologiae medii aevi. 3). Likias Verlag, Friedberg 2019, ISBN 978-3-9820130-1-5 .
Web links
- guteinfo (Swedish, with pictures)
- PaGotland ( Memento from August 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (Swedish)
- Orgelanders (Swedish, with pictures)
- Stenkyrka församling (Swedish, parish page)
- Building register at Riksantikvarieämbetet (Swedish, free material from which the original Swedish article was partially obtained)
Coordinates: 57 ° 44 ′ 55 ″ N , 18 ° 29 ′ 30.5 ″ E