The Skovgaard Museum is situated in the former town hall from 1728 next to Viborg Cathedral. It holds a collection of works by four generations of the Skovgaard family of artists.
The main feature of the permanent collection is the work of the Skovgaard family. Peter Christian Skovgaard (1817–1875) was the principal representative of national romanticlandscapes of the Golden Age of Danish painting. His sons, Joakim Skovgaard (1856–1933), who created the mural decorations in Viborg Cathedral, and Niels Skovgaard (1858–1938) also worked with landscape painting. However, their work is characterized rather by Symbolism and burgeoning Modernism. The collection holds exquisite examples of landscape painting as well as religious and mythological subjects.
The circle of artists surrounding the Skovgaard family is also represented in the museum's collections, with works by, among others, the renowned Danish artists Niels Larsen Stevns,Viggo Petersen and Thorvald Bindesbøll. The Skovgaard Museum shows three to four temporary exhibitions a year, ranging from art from the beginning of the nineteenth century to contemporary art. The permanent collection is on display all year round.
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.