page_title: Gothenburg Cathedral
section_title: The first cathedral
hierarchical_section_title: Gothenburg Cathedral / The first cathedral
caption_attribution_description: Superintendent Prytz predikan vid invigningen av Gustavi domkyrka
context_page_description: Gothenburg Cathedral is a cathedral in Gothenburg, the second largest city in Sweden. It is the seat of the bishop of the diocese of Gothenburg in the Church of Sweden.
context_section_description: The rectory was completed in 1624, and the construction of a new church on the site of the stave church was announced in 1627. King Gustavus Adolphus created a tax to pay for the work. The initial demand was for a barrel (just over 125 litres) of wheat, oats, barley or rye from each church-owned property in Västergötland province for a three-year period. In a letter to Gothenburg's town council (13 December 1629) the tax was extended for three more years. From 1625 to 1634, construction costs increased to 8,387 Swedish riksdaler.
  Construction was led by master mason Lars Nilsson. The foundation stone was laid by Gothenburg's justitiepresident (judge) Nils Börjesson Drakenberg on 19 June 1626, and in 1633 the new main building was complete. By 1633, the stave church had been torn down, although its tower remained in use as a guard tower. During the construction period and for some time thereafter, the church was called stora kyrkan (the great church), the name used in the accounting records. It remained standing for nine more years, until a new tower replaced it in January 1643.
  On 10 and 11 August 1633 superintendent Andreas Prytz consecrated the church with two sermons: "On the right use of churches" and "On the consecration of churches". The inauguration is commemorated at the cathedral with an annual sermon on 10 August. The church was not designated as a cathedral (domkyrke) until the 1680s.
  No contemporary documents relating to the installation of the church bells have been found. The bells are mentioned retrospectively by Eric Cederbourg (1739):
  In the tower were hung three large and beautiful bells, whose strong and harmonious sound could be heard for [over 8 km]; on the north wall of the tower a large, well-founded bell of 6 skeppspund [1,020 kg] weight was erected to chime the hour.
  The first tower clock mechanism, made by clockmaker Per Larsson in 1648, was replaced in 1670 by one made by Jacob Hertingk of Stralsund.
  The church was built of granite, faced with Dutch bricks and adorned with 18 iron-trimmed Palladian windows placed between buttressing supports. It had an ornate arched entry door with iron fittings. The building was 48.1 metres long, 20.2 metres wide and 26.5 metres high at the pediment roof. It had no transept. The tower wall was 27.6 feet high, not counting its spire. The church roof was clad with oak shingles and topped with copper plates; on the eastern end of the roof was a weather vane in the form of a large copper-gilded sun, which in 1700 had been so weakened that it was replaced with a wooden cap. The cathedral spire was demolished and replaced in 1700.
caption: Announcement of superintendent Prytz's sermon at the inauguration of the first church in 1633, published by Heinrich Keyser, 1634. From Library of Lund University.
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