Strängnäs Cathedral, Lutheran cathedral in Strängnäs, Sweden
Strängnäs Cathedral is a red brick Gothic church on Kyrkberget in central Strängnäs. Its single square tower, topped by a Baroque hood since 1745, rises on the left, while the long nave extends to the right with tall arched windows between brick buttresses. Inside, clustered brick piers carry pointed arches and ribbed vaults toward a high altar with a large triptych.
The brick church was built from about 1260 to the 1330s, when Bishop Styrbjörn probably consecrated it in 1334. A Gothic high choir with an ambulatory and a north sacristy followed between 1448 and 1462, consecrated by Bishop Sigge Ulfsson Sparre. After a fire in 1473, Bishop Kort Rogge raised the tower and gave the church a single roof.
The cathedral is dedicated to the apostles Peter and Paul, consecrated in the 1330s, not to Saint Eskil, though Eskil was martyred on the nearby hill. Since 1999 the Chapel of the Martyrs, in the former Sack-Gyllenborg burial chapel, commemorates modern Christian martyrs worldwide. The white and gold pulpit was carved around 1789 by court sculptor Pehr Ljung.
The cathedral stands on Kyrkberget in central Strängnäs, a short walk uphill from the town centre and the harbour. The main west portal of 1648, with its columns, is the usual entrance. The cathedral library in the northwestern corner can be visited; the medieval wall paintings and the chapels are inside the nave and side choirs.
Strängnäs Cathedral Library traces its origin to 1316, when a widow's donation of books was recorded in a will for the Dominican monastery. Bishops Kort Rogge and John Matthiæ built it up deliberately, and Queen Christina added spoils of war from Prague, Olmutz and Nikolsburg in the 1600s. It now occupies the library chancel in the cathedral's northwestern corner.
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