Gutenburg Castle is the ruin of a hill castle above the village of Gutenberg in the county of Bad Kreuznach. The castle is first recorded in 1213 as castro Weitersheim. In 1334 the counts of Sponheim (Lower County of Sponheim) sold the castle, which had meanwhile been renamed the Gutenburg. After the sale it underwent a major conversion. Following the extinction of the House of Sponheim (the Kreuzenach line died out in 1414 and the Starkenburg line in 1437) the castle went to the Lower Sponheim lords (mainly the Margraviate of Baden and Electoral Palatinate). The castle lost its importance over time, was destroyed during the Thirty Years' War and fell into ruins. Today the castle ruins are in private ownership.
The castle consisted of an inner ward completely surrounded by a ring-shaped outer ward, protected by curtain walls with mural towers as well as a neck ditch. Considerable sections of the wall remain visible today.
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.