Garde Church, Medieval church in Garde, Sweden

Garde Church is a whitewashed limestone building with a tall tower on the left, topped by a steep spire clad in brown wooden shingles. The main body has a steep shingled roof, a pointed arched doorway with layered mouldings, and tall narrow arched windows. A grey stone band runs along the base of the walls.

Construction of the stone church probably began around 1130, and a document from the Diocese of Linköping records an inaugural service in 1200. The nave survives from this first building. The tower reached its present height in the mid-13th century, and in the first half of the 14th century the chancel was replaced by the large Gothic choir built by the workshop known as Egypticus.

The name Garde probably derives from an old word for a fortified farm. The cemetery wall, repaired over centuries but never substantially changed, holds four medieval lychgates; the western one stored the church tithe until 1917. Before 1739 the richest were buried south and east of the church, the poor to the west, and criminals north of it.

The church stands about 300 metres north of the road between Ljugarn and Lye in eastern Gotland. The main entrance is the large western lychgate, which has seats in niches between its two gates. The cemetery wall is low, between 110 and 160 centimetres, and has been repaired but not substantially changed since it was built.

North of the church, many Christian Viking Age graves with rich finds were discovered undisturbed. A medieval belief held that the church would collapse in that direction on Judgment Day, so the dead there could not rise; later burials were placed south of the church.