The church is one of the richest in figure sculptures in Gotland. The
capitals of the three portals are full of figure scenes, telling in three
acts, as it were, the story of the life of Christ, beginning in the northern
portal with the Visitation, the Annunciation and the Nativity of Christ,
proceeding with the Adoration of the Magi, the Murder of the Innocents,
the Presentation and the Flight to Egypt in the choir portal and ending
in the nave portal with the Baptism of Christ, the Passion, the Burial of
the Lord and Christ in Limbo, where the formidable Devil lies howling but
securely fettered. In a niche beside the portal stands a statue of St Denis.
The church was built and the sculptures executed by the workshop of "Egypticus"
about 1330. The tower remains from an older church. In connection with the
building of the new church an "inclusorium" (see Bro) was arranged
against its southern wall. The "Egypticus-painter" has decorated
the choir with his typical dragons and other figures, but in the vault of
the nave he has drawn an ornamental baldachin of the traditional Gotlandic
kind. The baptismal font is a fine work of the "mussle group"
from the middle of the 13th century. The pulpit from the middle of the 16th
century is one of the oldest on the island.
Photo Hans Hemlin
Text Dr. Bengt G Söderberg
©1997 Created by Sören_Gannholm