Allerum Church ( sv, Allerums kyrka) is a church in

Allerum Allerum is a locality situated in Helsingborg Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 716 inhabitants in 2010. Allerum Church contains an altarpiece An altarpiece is an artwork such as a painting, sculpture or relief representing a religious su ...

, in the province of

Skåne Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous with Skåne C ...

, Sweden. The tower and chancel of the church are medieval, while the rest of the church was heavily rebuilt during the 18th and 19th centuries. It contains an altarpiece by artist

Johan Christoffer Boklund Johan Christoffer Boklund (15 July 1817 – 9 December 1880) was a Swedish history, genre, and portrait painter from Kulla-Gunnarstorp in Scania. He was the son of a gardener. At the age of fifteen, Boklund came to Lund, where he worked on illustr ...

and fragments of medieval mural paintings.

History and architecture

Allerum Church was built in the 1150s and originally consisted of a

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

and a

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

with an

apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In ...

. It was enlarged in the 14th century, and the tower was built during the 15th century. A

church porch A church porch is a room-like structure at a church's main entrance. A porch protects from the weather to some extent. Some porches have an outer door, others a simple gate, and in some cases the outer opening is not closed in any way. The porch ...

was built 1500. Only the tower and chancel remain of the medieval church. In 1767 the southern

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building withi ...

was built, and at that time the apse was also demolished. The northern transept was built in 1834, and the interior of the church equipped with a

barrel vault A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are ...

. The northern church porch was also demolished. The church underwent a major renovation in 1910. During the renovation, a decorated Romanesque tympanon from the former southern portal was discovered in the vicinity of the church. It is today in the Historical Museum at Lund University in

Lund Lund (, , ) is a city in the southern Swedish provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, across the Øresund, Öresund strait from Copenhagen. The town had 91,940 inhabitants out of a municipal total of 121,510 . It is the seat of Lund Municipali ...

. The church still contains remains of medieval murals. The walls of the chancel contains fragments of Romanesque paintings as well as paintings from the late

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

. The

sacristy A sacristy, also known as a vestry or preparation room, is a room in Christian churches for the keeping of vestments (such as the alb and chasuble) and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records. The sacristy is usually located ...

contains murals from the 16th century that depict the

Binding of Isaac The Binding of Isaac ( he, , ), or simply "The Binding" (, ), is a story from Genesis 22 of the Hebrew Bible. In the biblical narrative, God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on Moriah. As Abraham begins to comply, having bound Isaa ...

and Samson and the lion. The oldest item in the church is the unadorned

baptismal font A baptismal font is an article of church furniture used for baptism. Aspersion and affusion fonts The fonts of many Christian denominations are for baptisms using a non-immersive method, such as aspersion (sprinkling) or affusion (pouring). ...

from the 12th century. The

altarpiece An altarpiece is an artwork such as a painting, sculpture or relief representing a religious subject made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting o ...

is from 1861 and made by artist

, who was born at nearby

Kulla Gunnarstorp Castle Kulla Gunnarstorp Castle ( sv, Kulla Gunnarstorps slott) is a castle in Helsingborg Municipality, Scania, in southern Sweden. Kulla Gunnarstorp is located near the Öresund between the villages Hittarp and Domsten, about 10 kilometers north of He ...

. The church has two

church bell A church bell in Christian architecture is a bell which is rung in a church for a variety of religious purposes, and can be heard outside the building. Traditionally they are used to call worshippers to the church for a communal service, and t ...

s, of which the oldest is from 1520 and contains an inscription to

Saint Giles Saint Giles (, la, Aegidius, french: Gilles), also known as Giles the Hermit, was a hermit or monk active in the lower Rhône most likely in the 6th century. Revered as a saint, his cult became widely diffused but his hagiography is mostly lege ...

. The other bell is from 1636.

References

External links

* {{Churches in Scania Churches in Skåne County Churches in the Diocese of Lund