The current Fole church was preceded by a Romanesque stone church. Of this church, the tower remains and is thus the oldest part of Fole Church, dating from ca. 1200. The Romanesque church was gradually replaced with the current, more Gothic church. During the middle of the 13th century, the choir and about half of the nave were rebuilt, and a few decades later, the rest of the nave. The rebuilt church was inaugurated in 1280.
The church has remained relatively intact since. The sacristy was redecorated in 1707, and minor alterations to the interior have been made occasionally throughout the centuries.
The church exterior have both Gothic and Romanesque elements. The tower is in its entirety Romanesque, reminiscent of the tower of nearby Bro Church. A portal, originally the choir portal, has been re-used from the earlier Romanesque stone church and now functions as the sacristy portal. The nave and the choir are however Gothic. The church lacks an apse and has a straight eastern wall with three vertical windows. One of the walls is inscribed with runes made by the locals as a sort of permanent record about their right to use a road through part of Fole.
The interior of the church has been decorated with frescos, of which fragments remain. The church does however still contain several medieval items. The baptismal font dates from the early 13th century, with the upper part painted over during the 18th century. It contains on the upper part reliefs depicting the flight into Egypt and the apostles, and on the base sculpted heads and beasts. The church also has a triumphal cross from the middle of the 13th century (painted over in the 1840s), and contains several medieval tombstones. Other furnishings are later, including the Neo-Gothic gallery (1870s), one of only a few such pieces on Gotland.
References:Sigmaringen Castle was first mentioned in the year 1077 in the chronicles of Petershausen monastery. The oldest parts of the castle are concealed beneath the alterations made during the 17th and the 19th centuries. The secret of the earliest settlement built on this defendable rock will never be fully revealed: large-scale excavation work would be necessary, which the extensive land development renders impossible. Judging from the many Roman remains unearthed in the area around Sigmaringen, the 12th century keep known as the 'Roman Tower' could be traced back to a Roman predecessor.
The castle remains that have been preserved (gate, great hall and keep) date back to the Staufer period around 1200. The castle remains were integrated into subsequent buildings. The foundations of the castle buildings are to a large extent identical to the surrounding castle wall.
These remains give us a good idea of how the castle might have looked during the 12th century.