The Wallace Monument is a picturesque Gothic structure and is in a prominent situation, built to commemorate William Wallace at the time of an upsurge in the Scottish desire for self-determination, predating the 1869 Wallace Monument at Stirling.
Robert Snodgrass built a square plan Gothic tower in 1855–1857 from polished sandstone ashlar blocks, 3-stage, 3.7 m wide at the base, 18 m high, with a pinnacled parapet. Base course; string courses; corbelled, shouldered band course between 2nd and 3rd stages; machicolated, crenellated parapet with thistle-finialled, conical-capped circular angle pinnacles and ball-finialled, ogee-capped square-plan wallhead pinnacles. Diagonally-boarded timber door in Tudor-arched, roll-moulded doorway with hoodmould to the south-east elevation; similar inscription recesses at other elevations. Round-arched recesses at 2nd stage; paired round-arched recesses at 3rd stage.
The Wallace family coat of arms and their motto 'Pro Libertate Patriae' are located above the entrance, carved by John Logan, a local sculptor.
A spiral staircase leads up to the viewing platform and the arms of the Wallace family are blazoned in bas-relief above the entrance door.
References: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.