Gotland is a Baltic island that boasts no fewer than 92 medieval churches and hence one of the highest concentrations of medieval churches anywhere in Europe. One of the many things that make this particular body of historic buildings intriguing is their unusual incorporation of influences from both east (mainly Novgorod and Kiev, but also the Byzantine Empire more generally), and west (England, Germany, and France in the main). This lecture offers a brief account of the historical reasons behind this compilation of styles before shining a spotlight on some key examples of art- and architectural-historical links both putative and hypothetical.

Marie Clausén is the author of Sacred Architecture in a Secular Age: Anamnesis of Durham Cathedral (Routledge 2016/2017). She holds bachelor's degrees in Political Science, Sociology and Art History, and master's degrees in International Relations (Graduate School of European and International Studies, University of Reading) and Art History (Uppsala University). Her present academic interests include Early Christian and medieval church architecture, existential and phenomenological approaches to sacred space, cultural heritage philosophies and policies as applied to sacred architecture, and the forgotten practice of ekphrastic writing. She is currently working towards her PhD in Religious Studies at the Department of Classics and Religious Studies, University of Ottawa, where she also teaches. Her dissertation is on the possible roles and fates of Norfolk's medieval churches in a post-Christian, but ostensibly also post-secular, future. Before embarking on her most recent degree, Marie spent 20 years in the academic book publishing industry in a variety of editorial roles on both sides of the Atlantic.