Asmundtorp Church ( sv, Asmundtorps kyrka) is a church in

Asmundtorp Asmundtorp () is a locality situated in Landskrona Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 1,562 inhabitants in 2010. Asmundtorp Church has been described as one of the most accomplished examples of 19th-century church architecture in Skåne. Sp ...

Landskrona Municipality Landskrona Municipality (''Landskrona kommun'') is a municipality in Scania County in Sweden. Its seat is located in the city of Landskrona. The island of Ven was added to the ''City of Landskrona'' in 1959. The amalgamations leading to the prese ...

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 current neo-Gothic church was built in 1895–1897 and replaced a medieval church on the same site. Designed by architect , it is one of the most accomplished examples of 19th-century church architecture in Skåne. It contains a medieval bronze baptismal font of northern German origin, the only one of its kind in the province. The church belongs to the

Church of Sweden The Church of Sweden ( sv, Svenska kyrkan) is an Evangelical Lutheran national church in Sweden. A former state church, headquartered in Uppsala, with around 5.6 million members at year end 2021, it is the largest Christian denomination in Sw ...

and is in the

Diocese of Lund The Diocese of Lund ( sv, Lunds stift) is a diocese within the Church of Sweden which corresponds to the provinces of Blekinge and Skåne. There are 217 parishes within the diocese, the most significant number in any of the dioceses of the Chur ...

History

A stone church was first built on the site of the present-day church as early as the 12th century. The medieval church was richly decorated with

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...

s. In the early 19th century, it was considered too small for the congregation, and it was substantially enlarged and altered between 1843 and 1846, partially to designs by Carl Georg Brunius. In 1869, however, a proposal was put forward to build an entirely new church to house the ever-growing congregation. In 1888 the parish announced an architectural competition for the design of a new church, specifying that the designs should be in the Neo-Gothic style. Although the winner of the competition was architect Axel Anderberg, the church council decided to go ahead with the designs submitted by Hermansson instead, probably because his proposal was deemed to be cheaper to build. The old church was demolished in 1895 and the present building erected in 1895–1897. The new church was financed with

returns Return may refer to: In business, economics, and finance * Return on investment (ROI), the financial gain after an expense. * Rate of return, the financial term for the profit or loss derived from an investment * Tax return, a blank document or t ...

from eleven farmsteads that were donated to the church during the

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 ...

. A major renovation was done in 1987. Asmundtorp Church belongs to the Church of Sweden and the Diocese of Lund.

Architecture and church furniture

The church was designed by architect Gustaf Hermansson in a Neo-Gothic style, with details made by architect Herman Sjöström, who also supervised the construction. It is unusually tall, the tower reaching , and has been described as one of the most accomplished examples of 19th-century church architecture in Skåne. The building material of the church is red

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

, supplied locally by ''Asmundtorp tegelbruk'' (Asmundtorp brickyard). It consists of a western tower, 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 ...

with two

aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parl ...

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 ...

and a pentagonal

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

. 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 ...

is located at the eastern end of the choir, between two

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (s ...

es. The church bells are older than the church, made in 1610 and 1651 and both made in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

. Inside, the church ceiling consists of brick vaults. Of the furnishings, perhaps the most unusual is the

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

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). ...

that belonged to the original, medieval church. The baptismal font dates from the 15th century and was made in northern Germany; it is the only medieval bronze font known from Skåne. 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 a copy of Thorvaldsen's '' Christus'', and also comes from the old church, where it was installed in 1859. The wooden

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

dates from the construction period of the church and is decorated with motifs symbolising the

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

on one side, and the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

on the other. The

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

windows in the choir, made by artist in

Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...

, show scenes from the life of Christ in the central panels, while the outer panels display the Four Evangelists and their symbols. The present

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks ...

dates from 1974 but its facade is contemporary with the church building.

References

External links

*
Official site (in Swedish)
{{Churches in Scania Churches in Skåne County Churches in the Diocese of Lund