Almarestäkets castle was built in the 1100s to protect the Sigtuna and Uppsala cities. It was also called as St. Erik's castle after Eric IX. Throughout the Middle Ages there was a struggle between the Crown and Church who can control the castle.
The castle was first mentioned in the late 1300s. In 1440 got Archbishop Nicolaus Ragvaldi permission to build a new castle, which was completed about ten years later. In the 1510s troubles Almarestäkets was in possession of Bishop Gustav Trolle between 1516-17. The castle was sieged by his main enemy Sten Sture the Younger in 1517. Archbishop Gustav Trolle locked himself in there to avoid trial, and the Swedish government demanded and carried out the demolition of the fortress. The procedure was formally unauthorized because at the time State property was to be separate from Church property. As a revenge for this and other perceived injustices, Trolle, assisted by the Danish King Christian II, took revenge in the Stockholm Bloodbath of 1520.
Today there are visible traces of castle foundations with potholes filled with stone and occasional bricks.
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.