Lilibeo or Lilybaion was originally a Carthaginian city founded around 397 BCE. It became soon a dynamic trade and handicraft centre. In the Hellenistic period it was a multiethnic town where Punic, Greek and Roman people lived together.
After a long siege, it was subdued by the Romans in the first Punic war in 241 BCE. Cicero mentioned Lilibeo in 76-75 BCE as a 'magnificient town'. During the age of Emperor Septimius Severus (193-211 AD) it was the seat of flourishing Christian community.
Vandals led by Genseric devastated Lilibeo in 440. However, it was still one of the most important cities of Sicily in the early Middle Ages. Later Arabs named the city as Marsah Allah, meaning 'the harbor of God'. This is why the city is today called Marsala.
Today you can visit on a Lilibeo Archaeological Park, which exhibits the Insulae with its mosaics, Roman baths, fortifications and findings.
Visby Cathedral (also known as St. Mary’s Church) is the only survived medieval church in Visby. It was originally built for German merchants and inaugurated in 1225. Around the year 1350 the church was enlarged and converted into a basilica. The two-storey magazine was also added then above the nave as a warehouse for merchants.
Following the Reformation, the church was transformed into a parish church for the town of Visby. All other churches were abandoned. Shortly after the Reformation, in 1572, Gotland was made into its own Diocese, and the church designated its cathedral.
There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor.