Fole Church, Medieval stone church in Gotland, Sweden

Fole Church is a limestone church in Fole on Gotland, with a Romanesque tower from around 1200 whose walls stay below the ridge of the nave roof. The Gothic nave and choir, finished by 1280, end in a straight eastern wall with three original windows; the tower's unplastered stone and its colonnetted sound openings are visible from outside.

A Romanesque stone church with an apse stood here before the present building; its tower, raised around 1200, survives and its foundation walls were found. In the mid-13th century the apse was replaced by the straight-ended choir and the eastern nave, and the nave was finished westward by the recorded consecration of 1280. The sacristy was redecorated in 1707.

The baptismal font, carved in limestone around 1200, has high-relief scenes of the Flight into Egypt and the apostles, with heads and beasts on its base; it was repainted in vivid colours in 1707. The triumphal cross above the chancel arch dates from the mid-13th century and was overpainted in the 1840s. Fragments of medieval murals survive on the walls.

The church is located in northern Gotland and welcomes visitors during regular services and gatherings. Timing your visit to coincide with a service helps you experience the space as it is actually used by the local community.

One wall of Fole Church carries runes carved by local people as a permanent record of their right to use a road through part of Fole parish. The inscription is cut into the stonework itself, so it reads as a land dispute written into the church rather than a devotional text. Look for it on the wall rather than among the later furnishings.