With its steep-roofed lichgates, its slender tower and high chancel the
church and churchyard form an imposing architectonic ensemble. The nave
and the lower part of the tower belong to a church from about 1100; the
chancel, with a splendid portal, was built by"Egypticus" about
1330-40. The chief marvels of the church are the Russo-Byzantine mural paintings
and the Romanesque roof-truss, probably the oldest one in Sweden (only to
be seen in the attic); it is supposed to have been originally open to the
nave. Of the paintings the two solemn saints in the tower arch have never
been covered with Plaster. The others are very fragmentary (uncovered in
the 1960s) but show, in places their very high artistic standard. They were
probably executed by a Russian (or Greek) artist who decorated the church
in Staraja Ladoga in Russia at the end of the 12th century. ln the same
purely Byzantine style the sculptor "Byzantios", who made the
baptismal font, worked.
Photo Hans Hemlin
Text Dr. Bengt G Söderberg
©1997 Created by Sören_Gannholm