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The 'lower castle' served as a residence for the Counts and later The Princes of Celje during the 14th and 15th century. It was separated from the town settlement by battlements and a defence ditch. After the extinction of The princes of Celje in the 15th century, the court was used as an office of the Habsburg caretakers and was transformed into a barracks in the 18th century. The building we know today has undergone many radical changes, most of them during the reign of Empress Maria Theresa.
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.