page_title: List of medieval churches on Gotland
section_title: Architecture
hierarchical_section_title: List of medieval churches on Gotland / Architecture
caption_attribution_description: Svenska: Martebo kyrka, detalj av kapitälband som visar Jesu frambärande i templet. Tjänarinnan längst till vänster, bakom Maria, bär en korg med offerduvor och ett stort vaxljus. Kapitälbandet har varit målat, vilket syns tydligt på hennes mörkt gröna klänning. Reliefen har tillskrivits olika stenmästare/hyttor, "Fabulator" enligt Johnny Roosval, "Martebo-mästaren" enligt Erik Lundberg och "Egypticus" enligt Erland Lagerlöf.
context_page_description: There are 92 well-preserved churches from the Middle Ages on the Swedish island Gotland, which is more than in any other part of Sweden and unusual also compared with other parts of Europe. Benefiting from its location in the middle of the Baltic Sea, the island enjoyed an increase in trade and wealth thanks to increasing trade between Western and Eastern Europe, giving the inhabitants the means to build large and prestigious churches. The preserved churches date from a period between the early 12th century to the middle of the 14th century. The first churches were stave churches, but of these only fragments remain. The oldest still preserved churches on Gotland are simple Romanesque churches. Church architecture remained conservative on Gotland, and while Gothic forms eventually replaced Romanesque, it never acquired the structurally light character it did elsewhere in Europe. The churches built during the first half of the 14th century on Gotland are sometimes referred to as "counter-Gothic" in Swedish literature.
  The churches were often decorated with paintings of walls and vaults and stained glass windows inside, and with decorative sculptures both inside and outside.
context_section_description: The first stone churches on Gotland were built in the first half of the 12th century. They were simple Romanesque churches. They were constructed without a socle or base, and had undecorated, narrow round arched portals. Sometimes they were decorated with friezes of reliefs depicting religious or possibly mythological subjects; some of these have been preserved by being re-used and incorporated in later, Gothic structures. These earliest churches display stylistic influences from both Western and Eastern Europe, the latter especially evident in the Russo-Byzantine church murals in Garde Church. During the second half of the 12th century, stylistic tendencies shifted decisively towards Western Europe. The construction site of Lund Cathedral in Scania spread influences from present-day Germany. The establishment of the Cistercian Roma Abbey on Gotland in 1164 would have a lasting influence on church architecture on Gotland, which came to incorporate several elements from Cistercian architecture. These include both certain notable details, such as chancels lacking apses, with a straight east walls containing three lancet windows, but also in a general tendency towards a relatively austere architecture. Inside, these churches were probably all decorated with murals, but very few of these have been preserved. A greater number of Romanesque furnishings have been preserved. Workshops specialised in making sculpted baptismal fonts were established on Gotland during the 12th century and supplied not only the churches on Gotland with decorated fonts, but also exported fonts to entire Baltic region. Several of these workshops have been given notnames by later art historians, such as Majestatis and Byzantios, while other labels, such as Sigraf and Hegvald, derive from inscriptions found on the fonts. A number of wooden sculptures have also been preserved from this time, including the Viklau Madonna, one of the most well-preserved 12th-century wooden sculptures in Europe, and a number of rood crosses from the same workshop.
  A boom in church building began on Gotland around 1225. New churches were erected and older churches were rebuilt. During this period, a local variant of Gothic architecture would replace the earlier Romanesque style. The churches became considerably larger, with vaults supported by pillars and divided into several bays. Apses were no longer built. Another peculiarity is that the north side of the churches almost always lacked windows; whether for practical, religious or superstitious reasons is not known. Stylistically, a conservative Early Gothic style, still strongly reminiscent of Romanesque through its heavy volumes and often round arches, would prevail until the end of the 13th century. Influences came from Westphalia, conveyed via Visby, an indication of the trade connections of the time. At the end of the 13th and early 14th century the style shifted towards what is often referred to as High Gothic. In contrast to earlier churches, these churches have decidedly Gothic forms such as larger, pointed arch windows and more slender pillars supporting higher vaults. Several of them are decorated with murals. Stained glass windows are also preserved in larger amounts from this period, and the churches of Gotland contain the largest amount of medieval stained glass in Sweden with Lye Church containing the largest intact set in the Nordic countries. From c. 1320 until around 1360, the last great building period took place on Gotland. Stylistically, there is a change towards a heavier architecture which in Swedish literature sometimes is referred to as "counter-Gothic" (kontragotik). While purely Gothic in details such as windows and portals, the architecture does not strive for lighter volumes and soaring heights, with walls dissolved into large expanses of windows supported by buttresses and pilasters. Structurally, the churches instead again tended towards more closed-in, darker spaces and heavier volumes. During the entire Gothic period, the main portals of the churches were often richly decorated. During the Ea
caption: During the 14th century, the church portals were often decorated with figures, such as these at Martebo Church which still has traces of the original paint.[24]
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