List of church ruins on Gotland

[2] Three additional church ruins in Visby are known through written sources, but today completely vanished.

[2][4] Visby grew to become an important trading port during the Middle Ages, and most of the churches in the city were built during the 12th and 13th centuries.

[2] When troops from Lübeck pillaged the city in 1525, and probably damaged several of the churches, the social and economic rationale for sustaining them had vanished.

All monasteries were abolished and all churches within the city walls except one (present-day Visby Cathedral) were abandoned and left to decay.

In 1805 the church ruins were protected by law and in 1863 the Swedish state for the first time allocated money for their conservation.