Moni Skiadi, nearby the village of Mesanagros. One of the more important monasteries on the island made famous by its miraculous icon of the Blessed Virgin (panagia). Legend tells of a heretic who stabbed the painting many centuries ago and brought blood from the cheek of Mary. Still visible brown stains provide their own persuasive evidence.
The icon is carried around at Easter time from house to house and village to village until it finally comes to rest for a period on the island of Halki. Most of the present buildings arise from the 18th and 19th centuries built around a 13th-century Church of the Holy Cross. In its present form, the tiered campanile is attached to the church building which has a typical cross vaulted roof.
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.