Mora Church ( sv, Mora kyrka) is a

church building A church, church building or church house is a building used for Christian worship services and other Christian religious activities. The earliest identified Christian church is a house church founded between 233 and 256. From the 11th thro ...

Mora Mora may refer to: People * Mora (surname) Places Sweden * Mora, Säter, Sweden * Mora, Sweden, the seat of Mora Municipality * Mora Municipality, Sweden United States * Mora, Louisiana, an unincorporated community * Mora, Minnesota, a city * M ...

in Sweden. It belongs to

Mora Parish Mora may refer to: People * Mora (surname) Places Sweden * Mora, Säter, Sweden * Mora, Sweden, the seat of Mora Municipality * Mora Municipality, Sweden United States * Mora, Louisiana, an unincorporated community * Mora, Minnesota, a city * M ...

of 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 ...

. It famous for being seen near the

Vasaloppet (Swedish for 'the Vasa-race') is an annual long distance cross-country ski race held on the first Sunday of March. The course starts in the village of Berga, just south of Sälen in western Dalarna, Sweden, and ends in the town of Mora in the c ...

finish line. The size and opulence of the church building, as compared to other churches in the region, is a result of the fact that in medieval times the whole of northern

Dalarna Dalarna () is a '' landskap'' (historical province) in central Sweden. English exonyms for it are Dalecarlia () and the Dales. Dalarna adjoins Härjedalen, Hälsingland, Gästrikland, Västmanland and Värmland Värmland () also known a ...

was part of the Mora Parish and the church served as the seat of

. The church has been dedicated to the archangel

Saint Michael Michael (; he, מִיכָאֵל, lit=Who is like El od, translit=Mīḵāʾēl; el, Μιχαήλ, translit=Mikhaḗl; la, Michahel; ar, ميخائيل ، مِيكَالَ ، ميكائيل, translit=Mīkāʾīl, Mīkāl, Mīkhāʾīl), also ...

since before the

Protestant reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

and the establishment of the

in the 16th century. The effigy of Michael and the dragon, as seen in the statue south-west to the churches main gates, was adopted as the coat of arms of Mora in 1946 and continues to be in use to this day. The reason why the church is dedicated to Saint Michael is a mystery, the Mora Parish itself proposes a possible miss identification with the native Scandinavian Saint Olof but nothing conclusive has been put forward as to why this would be the case.

References

External links

{{Coord, 61.0072, N, 14.5414, E, source:wikidata, display=title Mora, Sweden Churches in Dalarna County Churches in the Diocese of Västerås