Tromøy church was originally a Romanesque stone church built around 1150. The church was reconstructed to a cruciform church between 1748-1758, and today this fabulous church is one of Arendal's oldest sights. The church is an old seamark, and due to the unsheltered location, the church is without a tower. The interior of Tromøy church is beautiful. There are wood carvings and painted interior from the 1750s, restored in 1926-1939. Several details in the church are worth mentioning, like the baptismal font made of soapstone from the 14th century, and candlesticks made of brass from 1660.
Important people were buried inside the church in the Middle Ages, both in the choir and in the nave. The tombs had large gravestones in the church floor. It has been illegal to bury people inside the church since 1805, and the large gravestones were moved outside during the restoration in the 1750s. They are now visible along the churchyard wall in the west, together with boulders from Tromøy.
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.