Visby Cathedral history
The oldest church building in Visby, completed at the beginning of the 13th century, was changed and enlarged a couple of times during the Middle Ages.
Visby Cathedral Sankta Maria was built in the late 12th century. The means for this had been collected from German ships arriving in the harbour of Visby. Initially the cathedral was intended for German merchants visiting the town. But many Germans settled here and the cathedral eventually became their parish church.
The church was consecrated in 1225 and dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Of all the medieval churches in Visby, this is the only one preserved to this day.
The centre aisle was equipped with large windows, lighting up the entire church. However, whenever merchants were funding the building, they tended to want to put all the empty space above into use, so they added vaults and floors to make storage space, thus shutting out the light to the nave. Even today, the church interior is rather dark. Later models of the windlass or winch and the hoist beam with a hook, used to hoist up goods from the ground, are still in place.
Read more about Visby Cathedral and its fantastic building below.
