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Founded: 12th centuryCategory: Castles and fortifications in France
Historical period: Birth of Capetian dynasty (France)
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The Château de Pierre-Percée ('pierced rock castle') in the commune of Pierre-Percée. The site in the early 12th century was in possession of Agnès, countess of Bar and widow of the count of Langenstein. She married Hermann II, Count of Salm and son of Hermann I, King of Germania (Eastern Francia). A well dug (~30 m) into the rock gives the village and the castle their name. The territory, which included the towns of Badonviller (which became the capital of the county) and Blâmont, became for several hundred years part of the hereditary property of the Counts of Salm. Around 1134, Hermann II went to war allied to the Duke of Lorraine against the Count of Bar and Stephan of Bar, the Bishop of Metz, himself a member of the Bar family. Hermann was killed on the battlefield outside the Château de Frouard. The castle at Pierre-Percée was besieged for a year and fell into the hands of the bishop of Metz with the death of Hermann's eldest son.
The castle was not besieged again until the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) when, being deserted, it was destroyed by Franco-Swedish troops.
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.