Churches on Gotland
Of the churches of the Swedish island of Gotland, 93 – the vast majority – are medieval. 92 of these are located on the countryside, with only Visby Cathedral remaining within the city wall of Visby, the main town of the island. However, during the Middle Ages, the amount of churches was even larger, with at least 12 churches in Visby and an additional large number in the countryside. Some of these are still visible as more or less well-preserved ruins. For further information about these ruined churches, see list of church ruins on Gotland.
Gotland began to gradually abandon Norse religion and adopt Christianity during the 11th century. The first churches to be built on Gotland were wooden, built in the manner of stave churches. None of these have survived intact. The most well-preserved remains, today in the Swedish History Museum, are those of Hemse stave church. Traces and archaeological evidence of earlier stave churches have been discovered in ten different sites on Gotland. The remains point to an artistic decoration reminiscent of Viking art.
Stone churches began to replace wooden churches during the 12th century. These churches were Romanesque in style, with influences coming mainly from Denmark and western German architecture, but to a limited extent also from the Byzantine Empire. Importantly, the construction of Lund Cathedral in Scania established a source of influences in the relative vicinity. Likewise, the 1164 establishment of the Cistercian monastery of Roma Abbey on Gotland led to strong Cistercian influences in the following period of church construction. These Romanesque churches were sometimes decorated internally with frescos. Here also, the influences came most often from the west and south, but sometimes also from Russia. Similarly, the churches were adorned with stone sculpture, notably decorated baptismal fonts. Here, too, influences came from both the west and the east, but the sculptors themselves seem to have been native Gotlanders. Finally, such churches also occasionally display wooden sculptures, such as triumphal crosses. These display a more markedly uniform western style, with influences coming from France or western Germany.
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Wikipedia