Fide Church dates from the 13th century. Oldest are the nave and choir, while the tower was added slightly later. The roof lantern which gives the top of the tower its distinctive shape is however considerably later, from 1826.
The church lies in an unusually well-preserved medieval cemetery which is surrounded by a low wall in which three medieval gates still sits. The building material of the church is sandstone. The exterior of the church is rather barren, but rather unusually the church still keeps the original windows, which have never been enlarged.
Inside, the church is decorated with frescos from two different periods. The oldest are from the early 15th century and includes religious motifs as well as an inscription in latin that has been interpreted as a lamentation of the Battle of Visby in 1361. In translation it reads: 'The field is burnt and the men cry, beaten and in pain under the sword.' The other, somewhat later set of frescos depict scenes from the Passion of Christ and have been attributed to the Master of the Passion of Christ. Among the furnishings, especially the medieval (early 15th century) altarpiece deserves mention. The church furthermore has a triumphal cross from the time of the construction of the church, and one of the oldest pulpits on Gotland, from 1587.
References:Saint-Georges de Boscherville Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey. It was founded in about 1113 by Guillaume de Tancarville on the site of an earlier establishment of secular canons and settled by monks from the Abbey of Saint-Evroul. The abbey church made of Caumont stone was erected from 1113 to 1140. The Norman builders aimed to have very well-lit naves and they did this by means of tall, large windows, initially made possible by a wooden ceiling, which prevented uplift, although this was replaced by a Gothic vault in the 13th century. The chapter room was built after the abbey church and dates from the last quarter of the 12th century.
The arrival of the Maurist monks in 1659, after the disasters of the Wars of Religion, helped to get the abbey back on a firmer spiritual, architectural and economic footing. They erected a large monastic building one wing of which fitted tightly around the chapter house (which was otherwise left as it was).