Details
Founded: c. 1300Category: Religious sites in Germany
Historical period: Habsburg Dynasty (Germany)
Rating
5/5 (based on Google user reviews)
User Reviews
Andrea Melkuhn (2 years ago)
St. Jakob (St James the Greater) church was founded in 1209 by Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor. The small Romanesque chapel was demolished about 80 years later and the church rebuilt. The church soon came into the possession of the Knights of St John. By Frederick II, the order was equipped with more and more possessions. The church still contains the reredos on the high altar which dates from 1360-1370.
During the Reformation, the Church of St. James was one of the Protestant Churches. In 1531 a preacher was intended, but the church remained in possession of the Catholic Teutonic Order.
In 1632 during the Thirty Years' War King Gustav Adolf expropriated the Teutonic Order, and handed the church to the city of Nuremberg and which carried out an extensive renovation. By the provisions of the Treaty of Westphalia returned to the Teutonic Order in 1648. The Order kept its hold until 1809, when Napoleon Bonaparte ordered its dissolution. In 1810 St. Jakob became the third Protestant parish church of Nuremberg.
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.