Skara Cathedral

Skara Cathedral
Skara Cathedral, July 2004
58°23′11″N 13°26′21″E / 58.38639°N 13.43917°E / 58.38639; 13.43917
Location	Skara
Country	Sweden
Denomination	Church of Sweden
History
Status	Cathedral
Founded	11th Century
Dedication	St Mary
Architecture
Functional status	Active
Style	Gothic
Groundbreaking	13th Century
Specifications
Number of spires	2
Administration
Diocese	Skara
Clergy
Bishop(s)	Åke Bonnier

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Swedish. (October 2017) Click [show] for important translation instructions. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Swedish Wikipedia article at [[:sv:Skara domkyrka]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|sv|Skara domkyrka}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Skara Cathedral (Swedish: Skara domkyrka) is a church in the town of Skara, Sweden. The cathedral is the seat for the bishop of the Diocese of Skara of the Church of Sweden .^[1]

Its history is traced from the 10th century^[a], but its current appearance in the Gothic style originated in the 13th century. The choir dates back to the early 13th century, whilst the transept and nave took shape a century later. The cathedral was damaged and restored on several occasions, making its current appearance rather modern. In the 1760s, it was given a baroque southern facade. The current Gothic Revival design dates to restorations in 1886–1894 under architect Helgo Zettervall (1831–1907). The previously flat twin towers were given pointed Gothic spires.^[3]

The 37 mosaic stained glass windows were created by the artist Bo Beskow (1906-1989) in cooperation with glazier Gustav Ringström between 1945 and 1976. The motifs are mostly biblical, but the two Swedish saints Bridget of Sweden and Helena of Skövde are also depicted. No windows from the medieval church have been preserved.^[4]

There are four bells in the two towers on the west side. The northern tower contains the large bell, cast in 1725 and enlarged in 1785, while three smaller bells hang in the southern tower. The church is 65 metres (213 ft) long and the towers reach a height of 63 metres (207 ft).^[5]

The church has a medieval crypt that was found in 1949 after having been buried under stones since the 13th century. A grave, containing a skeleton, was found in the crypt, which is within the oldest (10th century) part of the cathedral. Some remains of the original 10th century structure can still be seen in the crypt.^[6]

• 
  Altar
• 
  Nave
• 
  Entrance at the north transept
• 
  Statues of four prophets
• 
  Chancel window
• 
  Pulpit
• 
  Stone reliefs (12th century)
• 
  Portrait bust of King Valdemar

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Skara Cathedral.

• Wideen, Harald (1993) Skara Domkyrka, kort historik och vägledning (Stockholm: Kungl. Vetenskaps- och vitterhets-samhället) ISBN 91-85252-49-2
• Beskow, Bo (1985) Ny himmel, ny jord : en bok om Bo Beskows fönster i Skara domkyrka (Stockholm: Legenda) ISBN 91-582-0684-1

• Skara Domkyrka official website

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