As the name reveals, this church was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. She was the patroness of traders. The vicinity of the sea and the close-ness to Europe made medieval Ystad one of the most important trading cities in the Hanseatic region. Above the porch, in the vaulted so-called tympanum field, there is a beautiful brass relief of the Virgin Mary and the Child

Jesus. Around them we see a ship and motifs from the town of Ystad. This relief was made by the Artist and Sculptor Oscar Antonsson in 1931. Antonsson has also produced the sculpture called “Bäckahästen”

(a mythological water-sprite) found in the Main Square at Ystad.

The ante-chamber is divided into two parts by a windscreen of wood. The ceiling in the inner part of the ante-chamber shows a fragment of a beautiful painting of an angel who blows a trumpet.

St Mary’s Church Tower is from 1688-89. The ca. 60 meters high tower has a copper-covered spire, a gilded weathercock and a clock-face with gilded hands and numerals.

The Tower Watchman

“The mild and might hand of God will preserve our town from fire and burning”

In the tower of the church of St Mary we find the symbol of Ystad, the Tower Watchman, who has watched over

the town since the 18th century. Tower Watchmen could be found in many towns well into the 19th century. Nowadays Ystad is the only town in the Nordic countries who keeps that tradition alive.

In the past, the task of the Tower Watchman was essential. From the tower, he kept watch and issued warnings of fires and unwelcome visitors over land or from the sea. If everything was quiet, he would blow his brass horn every fifteen minutes, day or night, through an opening in the tower: first to the north, then to the east, the south and the west. One blow at a quarter past, two blows at the half hour, three blows at a quarter to and four blows every hour on the hour. In case of any danger, he would instead blow his warning signal and hang out a red lamp or, in daytime, a flag to indicate the direction from which the danger should be sought.

Today the Tower Watchman is employed by the Ystad Town Council and only the time signals between 21.15 and 01.00 remain.

In the past, visitors were able to climb up into the tower, but due to the diff-iculties of evacuating visitors in case of fire, the church tower is nowadays closed to visitors.

The Church of St Mary has three bells: the large bell, the middle bell and the small bell. The church also has a carillon of 36 bells.

The large bell is popularly known as “The Great Canute” or The Canute Bell, but it is in fact the middle bell that is the real Canute Bell. The large bell was re-cast in 1672 and in 1778.

The middle bell is the oldest of St Mary’s church bell. Inside the bell the in-scription “Anodi 1558 blef Sticanuti gildisklocke stöbt” (In the year 1558 this gilded clock of St Canute was cast) can be found. This bell was re-cast in 1850 and in 1924.

The small bell, which is known as the priest’s bell was probably made at Lübeck in 1624. When the priest’s bell sounded, it meant that the priest had left his home and was on his way to church. Then the parishioners could come and make appointments for weddings, baptisms of children, receive address certificates when moving or deal with other parochial matters.

The carillon in the upper part of the church tower was cast by the M & E Ohlsson’s Bell Foundry at Ystad. With its 86 bells, it is one of the larger carillons installed in a church in Sweden. The carillon was installed in 1970 and was de-dicated on New Year’s Eve 1970. The tunes played by the carillon vary accord-ing to the seasons of the year and the feasts of the church.

The churching pews can be found on both sides of the doors of the ante-chamber. Women who had recently given birth were considered unclean in body and soul and were therefore not allowed to sit together with the rest of the congregation. If the woman had given birth to a boy, she had to sit in the churching pews for forty days after the delivery and, if she had had a girl, for eighty days. After that, the woman was blessed by the priest and once again permitted to take her place in the church as part of the parish community. It was called to be churched.

The simple grey-painted pews, called The Fishermen’s Pews, from the 1920s stand on the south side below the gallery. Here the fisher-men from Revhusen used to sit when they came to church. Revhusen was an area on the south side of the railway line at Ystad.

The former Dragoon Pews, also from the 1920s, stood at the other end of the transept, where the visitor’s corner is found today. They were intended for the staff members of the Dragoon Regiment. Those pews have been saved and kept in a storage warehouse.

The organ face and the gallery were produced in the years 1724 and 1727respectively by the Sculptor and Wood-Carver Johan Jerling. The organ face is richly decorated with ornamental leaves and figures in the Baroque style. King Karl XII’s shield with his name can be seen at the top of the organ face. King Karl XII and his troops were billeted for a while at Ystad before they sailed on towards Narva. There is however no immediate explanation as to why his shield is placed there. The original face was taken down in the year 1877 when a new organ was installed and replaced with a

simple one made of grained oak imitation. Parts of the original face ended up in the loft. Other parts were sold or disappeared. The parts that remained were put back during the 1923-24 restoration and the face was restored.

The railings of the organ gallery were decorated by paintings with biblical motifs, made by Carl Mört ca. 1720.

Baptism is a simple and holy act, in which the water, the words of institution, the laying on of hands and the blessing proclaim that human beings belong together with God. When we are baptised, we are admitted into a community that has existed for many, many years and wh-ich exists throughout the whole world. Baptism shows that deep down all people belong to-gether, both backwards and forwards in time and across the whole earth.

The baptismal font at St Mary’s Church is made of brass and was produced at Lübeck by Renholdt Benning.

The font rests on three lying-down lions. Along the upper edge of the font there is an inscription that tells us that this font was given to St Marys Church in the year 1611 by the Mayor, Hans Tillufsen. Orig-inally, the font was placed in the Holy Cross Chapel. In 1820 it was moved to the quire, by the high altar, and during one period it stood next to the pulpit. During the 1923-24 restoration the font was moved to the baptistery, where it has stood ever since.

The altar in the baptistery, which is made of white bricks with a limestone slab on top, was added when the church was restored in 1924. At that time the beautiful carved reredos was also given back to St Mary’s Church. It had been kept for many years in the History Museum at Lund. This reredos made of oak was created in the Gothic style, probably in the 15th century in northern Germany. The reredos is in good condition but unfortunately the two side-doors are missing. In the middle of the reredos we see Jesus and Mary. In be-tween them there is an empty space where there might once have been a figure, a crucifix or maybe an aumbry, i.e. a place where the consecrated host was kept. Below Jesus and Mary we can see the four Church Fathers St Augustine, St Ambrose, St Jerome and St Gregory. Round about in groups of three the twelve apostles sit, but two of them are missing. The lower part of the reredos, also called the predella, shows paintings of the birth, passion, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. The flag shown is the flag of Christ. Its cross was once golden but the colour has faded over the years. It is thought that these paintings are from the 18th century.

The Neo-Gothic iron chandelier in the baptistery is from the 19th century and it is the oldest chandelier in the church. Originally it was hung in the church itself. It consists of a bottom bowl with a spike in the middle for larger wax candles and four outgoing arms for smaller candles. Everything is hung on long iron poles and held together by iron rings. At the top of the chandelier is an iron cross. This chandelier was shown at the World Exposition in Paris in the year 1867 and after that it ended up at the National History Museum at Stockholm. During the 1923-24 restoration, the then Rector, Sam Stadener, requested the return of the chandelier.

The children’s altar close to the baptistery is for the children themselves. Here they can find all the things that the adults “play with” in the services. They can dress up as a bishop or a priest, play Holy Communion, baptism, wedding or funeral and freely find their way ahead in the same play as the adults under-take, but on their own conditions. All the wooden details were produced by Västerås Möbelhantverk that works in the Bruno Mattsson tradition. The tex-tiles were made by Berit Lundqvist, Textile Consultant to the Diocese of Västerås.

Close by the left (north) transept there is a remnant from the Roman-Catholic period of the church. During the 14th century there was an altar under the north-eastern vault called the Corpus Christi Altar. It was an altar for Holy Communion. An aumbry, i.e. a place where the consecrated host was kept, belonged to that altar. The altar itself has disappeared long ago but the aumbry remains. The aumbry has a rho-mbus-shaped metal grill decorated by flowers. It is surrounded by a frame of limestone and is adorned by a face.

St Mary’s Church has a unique collection of church silverware with many items made by the ancient Ystad masters. There are chalices, pa-tens, boxes for hosts, wine jugs, a baptismal bowl, a baptismal water jug and Baroque style candlesticks. The church silver has often been donated to the parish as gifts from well-healed parishioners, since that was considered an act of particular devotion.

Two black-painted iron rapiers are also kept in the silver cupboard. In the past, these rapiers were displayed on the wall in the baptistery, but due to the risk of theft, they are now kept under lock and key. One of them is an authentic Caroline rapier which once belonged to Captain Kindholtz in the Army of King Karl XII. On the blade there is an inscription: Carolus XII Rex Svecia. The second rapier belonged to a Danish Admiral, Lieutenant Jöns Sivers, who is said to have abducted a tradesman’s daughter and married her in Copenhagen. He supposedly then returned to Ystad as a tradesman and lived here until his death in 1746.

Above the brick-built quire altar there is a reredos in the Baroque style, designed and produced in 1718-1733 by the Sculptor Johan Jerling. In the middle field there is a painting of the first Eucharist. The painting shows 14 persons: Jesus, the twelve disciples and the Academy Master of Drawings, Carl Mört from Lund, who painted this picture. Mört added his own portrait rather than signing the painting (the man to the right of the disciple with the red cloak and with his face turned to the left). On each side of the reredos there are grained col-umns in red and the four evangelists. Above that field, there is a painting that shows the Baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan by John the Baptist, also painted by Carl Mört. Around this painting there are symbols of faith and hope. The reredos is crowned by two winged figures and between them the Jehova-symbol is framed by a radiating halo.

In the quire, next to the altar rail, there are two large wooden sculptures of St John and St Mary. These sculptures were made in the late 15th or the early 16th century. Both of them were painted, which can most easily be seen on the St John sculpture. For a while the St John sculpture was used as a collection box for the gifts for the poor and placed outside the church. That is why it has a hole in the back, the size of a fist. Anyone who could do without a few coins would put them into the St John sculpture, and the money was used to support poor parish-ioners. The red colour is the original colour. Originally both these sculptures were placed in the Holy Cross Chapel, which was demolished in 1840.

The quire stalls on both sides of the altar are made of dark oiled oak. They were made by Nordiska Kompaniet in Stockholm and put in place during the restoration in the 1920s. The stalls are used when there are only a few people present for baptisms, weddings, funerals or for Mass.

In the quire aisle, on the wall towards the quire itself, there is a mural that shows St Dorothea. St Dorothea is one of the so-called crowned head virgins. She was invoked in childbirth labour and against false accusations. Dorothea suffered martyrdom in the year 304 in Cappadocia (nowadays Turkey) where her father was a senator. When she was about to be beheaded, the imperial lawyer Theophilus scornfully called to her, saying “Send me a basket of fruits and roses from your heavenly paradise!” This she promised to do, and just when she was about to be beheaded, a young man

wearing a purple cloak with stars in his hair appeared: Jesus Christ. He carried a basket with three apples and roses. Dorothea encouraged the young man to give the basket to Theophilus, who then became convinced and was baptised. Later on he became a martyr himself. In works of art, the basket with fruits and roses is St Dorothea’s symbol.

In the central aisle we find the pulpit, the crucifixes, the pews, gravestones and the epitaphs, i.e. memorial plaques to important high-ranking persons.

The pulpit in sandstone and black and white limestone in St Mary’s Church is one of the most outstanding ecclesiastical Baroque works in Skåne. It was made in 1626 by the artist A.S. There is a similar pulpit by the same artist in the Church of St Peter in Malmö. Originally, the pulpit was placed further to the east in the nave, but it was moved to its present position in connection with the rebuilding of the church after the storm in 1648. Today traces of the holes from the pulpit can be seen west of the aumbry in the north wall of the nave. It is practical to have the pulpit in the middle of the church. In the past, the projection of the sound everywhere depended on the priest’s own vocal strength.

The lower part of the pulpit is made of sand-stone, as are the structural parts. Here we find Moses, who seems to be carrying the pulpit. The face behind Moses is thought to be that of the artist A.S., in place of a signature. The upper part of the pulpit, the so-called basket, is made of black and white limestone. The five reliefs in white alabaster on the basket show events in the life of Jesus: the annunciation, the ador-ation of the shepherds, the institution of the Eucharist, the crucifixion and the resurrection. On the sides you can see pictures of the four evangelists: Matthew and Mark on the west side and Luke and John on the east.

Above the pulpit there is a magnificent canopy of wood, also from the early 17th century. The canopy is decorated by figures of angles, lambs lying down and a shepherd at the top. Among the gilded angles the monogram CIV for the Danish King Christian IV can be seen as well as the text EXALTA VOCEM VT TVBA. ESA 58: “Lift up your voice like a tuba.” There is also the following biblical quote: Den som hör eder, han hör mig. Herrens mun har talat. Det skall icke återvända till mig fåfängt. Guds ord förbliver evinnerligen. (Whoever listens to you, listens to me. The mouth of the Lord has spoken. It will not return in vain. The Word of God remains for ever.)

In the staircase entrance to the pulpit, various initials have been engraved. It is claimed that it is pupils from the nearby Latin School who have carved them.

Opposite the pulpit hangs a painted wooden crucifix from the 16th century. The crucifix shows Jesus at the very moment of death, and the Christ figure has both hair and a beard of real human hair. It is claimed that King Karl XII issued a decree that a crucifix should hang opposite the pulpit to remind the priest of what he was talking about. Before 1724 it probably hung where the triumphal crucifix hangs today.

The triumphal crucifix in the high vault of the central aisle has a Christ figure wearing a crown of thorns and a gilded hip covering. This crucifix was orig-inally hung in the Holy Cross Chapel. The Christ figure is probably from the beginning of the 16th century, but the wooden cross was exchanged in 1924. It was then designed by the Cathedral Architect Theodor Wåhlin and produced by Sigfrid Paulsson at Lund.

The original pews of the church from the end of the 16th century were not intended for sitting on, but rather for standing or kneeling, and they were re-moved at the 1886 renovation. Luckily, the old gables end-pieces and doors were kept, and they were used as panelling along the walls of the church. One of the old pew-ends from the year 1582 remains in the quire aisle as a mem-orial. When the church was restored in the 1920s, the old pews were recreated, using the end-pieces and the doors, and complemented with new pews of dark-etched pine. The foremost pews in the central aisles have double bench-es so that people can turn towards the pulpit. The second pew from the front show the guild emblem for the blacksmiths and the farriers, and some of the pew ends show a key-hole. In the 18th century people would buy a pew in church and nobody else was allowed to use it. Pews were often inherited.

The floor in the church was laid during the 1925 restoration and it consists of hand-made red bricks. In the floor you can also find the old gravestones from the 17th and 18th centuries. During that period, it was common for town families to secure the preservation of their memory and their burial in church by purchasing a burial place for themselves in church. To have a burial place inside the church was a sign of status. Altogether, there are 84 gravestones scattered around the church. In the central aisle there is a gravestone in mem-ory of the tradesman Peter Oppendick, who dies in the year 1654. If you look up on the pillar next to it, you can also see an epitaph, i.e. a memorial to Oppendick.

The epitaphs in St Mary’s Church are memorials to the Mayors of the town in particular; see the gallery bellow. In the north-east part of the quire aisle, on the wall towards the quire, there are also three fragments of older epitaphs to three aristocratic families; Ulfstand, Bååt and yet another aristocratic family.