Väskinde church, Gotland

Väskinde (Vol. I) church, about 10 km NE of Visby is built in gothic style. The squared chancel has three narrow gothic windows and south door-way with remains of lime paint and with ornamented capitals. The nave has an ornamented south door-way and two groin vaults, thus without a column in the centre. The belfry has the same width as the nave and seems to have been built in bond with the nave. The belfry has north door-way with unornamented tympanum and galleries facing north and south. The stone wall of the belfry ends lower than the ridge of the roof of the nave.

In 1983 I got 24 samples of wood from floor-boards with straight halved side edges of medieval type. The boards were stored in the parish of Bro, and according to information they had been exchanged by new floor-boards in the nave of Väskinde and discarded, whereafter they were taken care of by a farmer. Samples no 14 and no 15 from the floor-boards have waney edge and are dated 1281.

Along the crest of the south wall of the chancel two long beams rest without present function. The longer and heavier of the two pieces has waney edge and is dated 1300. Outside the outermost measured annual ring is the early-wood of the next annual ring where late-wood is missing and apparently never has been developed. That outermost ring is dated spring 1301.

The bell-chamber is carried by eight vertical wooden masts above the vault of the belfry. Bore-cores have been taken from the two north-western masts. The curvature of the trunk is found in one of the corners but it lacks waney edge. Sample no 38 from the north-western mast is dated 1296 in its outermost annual ring.