Church of St Nicholas is a Serbian Orthodox church and one of the oldest baroque buildings of the Serb community north of the Sava River.
Present church was built in the period from 1733 till 1737. The church is built on location of old wooden church from 1690. The church was closed and looted during the World War II (1941-1942), and in 1991 interior of the church was dynamited by the local Croatian armed units in the city. Of the total 1991 pre-war internal inventory there is kept only 39 icons, 3 gospels and part of archive and church vessels. Reconstruction of external damage is completed, while the restoration of the interior is still in progress.
St Nicholas is nave building with an apse and bell tower at the main facade. The main front in the central part is slightly accentuated, processed by single and doubled pilasters, cornices and attic wavy line on the edges of a classicist vases. Slender tower that emphasize edge pilasters ending baroque arches with the lantern. Vaulted nave of the church is divided into four bays, which are separated by a wide archivolts resting on Ionic capitals, while the semi-dome-vaulted sanctuary. The bell tower, which was completed in 1767, is 37 meters high.
References:Visby Cathedral (also known as St. Mary’s Church) is the only survived medieval church in Visby. It was originally built for German merchants and inaugurated in 1225. Around the year 1350 the church was enlarged and converted into a basilica. The two-storey magazine was also added then above the nave as a warehouse for merchants.
Following the Reformation, the church was transformed into a parish church for the town of Visby. All other churches were abandoned. Shortly after the Reformation, in 1572, Gotland was made into its own Diocese, and the church designated its cathedral.
There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor.