Sankt Karin sits on Stora Torget, Visby's central square, and its tall pointed arches frame the daily cafe scene there beautifully. Construction began in 1233 as a Franciscan friary church, and the building grew through the 14th century until the Reformation made it redundant. Its roof collapsed in the 16th century and was never replaced.
Today it is essentially a stone screen — three storeys of Gothic tracery filtering the sun and the seabreeze. Free to enter and wander. Sit on the grass under the rose window with a cinnamon bun from one of the Stora Torget bakeries and you have understood Visby in fifteen minutes.