Lärbro Church () is a medieval church in Lärbro on the Swedish island of Gotland. The church is located at a former strategically important spot, as testified by the adjacent fortified tower. The presently visible Gothic church replaced an earlier Romanesque church during the 13th and 14th century. The cemetery of the church contains several graves of victims from Nazi concentration camps who were taken to a field hospital in Lärbro during and after World War II.
The octagonal church tower is one of the most unusual on the island; incomparable to other church towers outside Visby. It may have been built to house a chapel dedicated to Saint Olaf. The rest of the church is constructed in a more traditional style, similar to other churches on Gotland. It contains medieval murals and an altarpiece from around 1400, among other furnishings. The church is in the Diocese of Visby of the Church of Sweden, and classified as an ecclesiastical monument by the Swedish National Heritage Board.
Location and surroundings
Lärbro Church is located in Lärbro, just west of a small valley. Archaeologists have discovered the remains of two ancient causeways connecting the two sides of the swampy valley. The location of a (defensive tower) adjacent to the church can be explained by its former strategic location. The tower dates from the 11th or 12th century. It is a well-preserved, five storey tall stone tower built for defensive purposes. The ground floor and the top floor have ceilings supported by barrel vaults. On the third floor there are traces of an original dansker. The original entrance was on the ground floor. Communication between the floors was possible with a ladder, which could be pulled up from the upper floors. More recently, an external wooden staircase has been constructed which provides access to the tower through an entrance on the first floor. As of 2017, the tower is used for temporary exhibitions. Two medieval lychgates in the cemetery wall were demolished in 1885.
During World War II, a field hospital was built in Lärbro. At the time of its completion in 1942 it was one of the most modern of its kind in Sweden. Since Sweden never entered the war, the field hospital never had to be used by the Swedish Armed Forces. Instead, it was used to treat sick and wounded refugees and victims of the war from the rest of Europe. Among those treated in the field hospital were refugees fleeing the occupation of the Baltic states, German soldiers and around 500 victims from the Nazi concentration camps Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. Some of those treated in the field hospital did not survive, and were buried in the cemetery of Lärbro Church. There are 45 graves from this time at the cemetery, including nine of Jewish victims. There is a memorial stone erected by the Jewish community in Stockholm at the cemetery, and a stone commemorating the Polish citizens who were treated at the hospital and are buried in the cemetery was inaugurated by the Polish ambassador to Sweden in 2010.
History
The current church was preceded by an earlier, Romanesque stone church which consisted of a nave and a chancel with an apse, and a tower which may have been added later. It was probably built at the end of the 12th century. Some parts of this earlier church have been incorporated in the present church. This includes the present portal to the sacristy and its decorated tympanum, which was originally the chancel portal of the earlier church. A few elements of the nave, chancel and the base of the tower also remain from this first church in Lärbro.
At the end of the 13th century, a complete rebuilding of the church was initiated, resulting in the present Gothic building. The chancel and sacristy was replaced first, during the third quarter of the 13th century. The new nave was built at the end the same century. The octagonal tower was built in the 1340s. It was about higher at the time of construction; the top part of the tower was severely damaged in a storm in 1522, and had to be demolished. No major alterations have been made since then. A renovation was carried out between 1953 and 1955 under the leadership of architect . A number of redundant buttresses supporting the tower were then removed.