Hästveda Church ( sv, Hästveda kyrka) is a medieval church in

Hästveda Hästveda is a locality situated in Hässleholm Municipality, Scania County, Sweden with 1,623 inhabitants in 2010. The etymology of Hästveda indicates that the name originally signified a wood, or forest where horses were kept. Hästveda Church ...

, 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.

History

The church was built at the end of the 12th century, but has undergone several changes throughout its history. 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 ...

, later demolished, was built during the 15th century and during that century the interior of the church was also remade, and the currently visible

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

vaults constructed. Substantial changes were also made during the 19th century. The church tower partially collapsed and was rebuilt, albeit lower, to designs by

Helgo Zettervall Helgo Nikolaus Zettervall, older spelling ''Zetterwall'', (21 November 1831 – 17 March 1907) was a Swedish architect and professor of the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts. He is best known for his drastic restorations of churches and other b ...

. At the same time, in 1865, the western addition to the church was built. During a restoration in 1939-1940, the medieval murals were discovered under layers of

whitewash Whitewash, or calcimine, kalsomine, calsomine, or lime paint is a type of paint made from slaked lime ( calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2) or chalk calcium carbonate, (CaCO3), sometimes known as "whiting". Various other additives are sometimes used ...

and uncovered.

Murals

The church is richly decorated with murals from two different time periods. In the

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 ...

there are Romanesque murals from the second half of the 13th century, depicting

Christ in Majesty Christ in Majesty or Christ in Glory ( la, Maiestas Domini) is the Western Christian image of Christ seated on a throne as ruler of the world, always seen frontally in the centre of the composition, and often flanked by other sacred figures, whos ...

surrounded by the symbols of the Four Evangelists. Underneath, the

Apostles An apostle (), in its literal sense, is an emissary, from Ancient Greek ἀπόστολος (''apóstolos''), literally "one who is sent off", from the verb ἀποστέλλειν (''apostéllein''), "to send off". The purpose of such sending ...

are depicted in a row. The other set of paintings decorate the vaults in the

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 ...

of the church. They are

in style and depict religious scenes from the Bible. They were made some time before 1487, since the

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

of two

Danish noble families Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...

(the province of Skåne was at the time Danish) from

Jutland Jutland ( da, Jylland ; german: Jütland ; ang, Ēota land ), known anciently as the Cimbric or Cimbrian Peninsula ( la, Cimbricus Chersonesus; da, den Kimbriske Halvø, links=no or ; german: Kimbrische Halbinsel, links=no), is a peninsula of ...

who are known to have owned estates in the area previous to that date decorate the walls. Very probably it was these two families who commissioned the painting of the murals.

Furnishings

The oldest item in the church is the simple

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

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 ...

is from 1598 and made in the workshop of Jacob Kremberg. 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 ...

by Johan Ullberg is from 1774 but was moved from the apse when the murals there were discovered and uncovered. The smaller of the

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 comes from Russia and was brought to Sweden by the lord of Råbelöv Castle, who had served as a colonel in the army. It was bought by the church in 1836. The church also contains the only

runestone A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition began in the 4th century and lasted into the 12th century, but most of the runestones da ...

in , the so-called (

Rundata The Scandinavian Runic-text Data Base ( sv, Samnordisk runtextdatabas) is a project involving the creation and maintenance of a database of runic inscriptions. The project's goal is to comprehensively catalog runestones in a machine-readable way f ...

number DR 350 M).

References

External links

* {{Churches in Scania Churches in Skåne County Churches in the Diocese of Lund Church frescos in Sweden