Skeppsholmskyrkan is a church on the islet of Skeppsholmen, secularized in 2002. Named after its location, the church was built 1823-1849 to replace a minor wooden church on Blasieholmen destroyed in the devastating fire of 1822. Inaugurated by King Charles XIV John and still officially carrying his name, it was designed by the architect Fredrik Blom as a neoclassical octahedral temple inspired by the Pantheon in Rome, borrowing the coffered ceiling while substituting the oculus for the temple-shaped lantern light. On all sides, the plain white walls restored in 1998 are pierced by portals whose four pillars support semi-circular lunettes. Inside the cruciform exterior, the interior sheet of the wooden double cupola is supported by paired doric columns and rounded arches. Accompanying the painted altarpiece are niches with statues of the apostles and two plaster groups.
The Skeppsholmen parish was discontinued in 1969 when the Navy moved to Muskö, and the church was secularized in 2002. Since May 2009, the building is called Eric Ericsonhallen, named after the Swedish conductor Eric Ericson and is a Concert Hall managed by the Eric Ericson International Choral Centre.
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.