About: List of medieval churches on Gotland

There are 92 well-preserved churches from the Middle Ages on the Swedish island of Gotland, more than in any other part of Sweden and unusually many compared with other parts of Europe. Benefiting from its location in the middle of the Baltic Sea, the island enjoyed an increase in wealth thanks to expanding trade between Western and Eastern Europe, giving the inhabitants the means to build large and prestigious churches. The preserved churches date from between the early 12th century and the middle of the 14th century. The first churches were stave churches, but of these only fragments remain. The oldest substantially preserved churches on Gotland are simple Romanesque churches. Church architecture remained conservative on Gotland, and, while Gothic forms eventually replaced Romanesque, it