Alsike Church ( sv, Alsike kyrka) is a

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

church at

Alsike Clover or trefoil are common names for plants of the genus ''Trifolium'' (from Latin ''tres'' 'three' + ''folium'' 'leaf'), consisting of about 300 species of flowering plants in the legume or pea family Fabaceae originating in Europe. The genus h ...

Uppsala County Uppsala County ( sv, Uppsala län) is a county or ''län'' on the eastern coast of Sweden, whose capital is the city of Uppsala. It borders the counties of Dalarna, Stockholm, Södermanland, Västmanland, Gävleborg, and the Baltic Sea. Prov ...

, Sweden. It lies in

Knivsta Municipality Knivsta Municipality (''Knivsta kommun'') is a municipality in Uppsala County in east central Sweden. Its seat is located in the town of Knivsta, with some 7,100 inhabitants. History Until 1971 Knivsta was a municipality in Stockholm County, w ...

, a suburb to Stockholm. The church is associated with the

Archdiocese of Uppsala The Archdiocese of Uppsala ( sv, Uppsala ärkestift) is one of the thirteen dioceses of the Church of Sweden and the only one having the status of an archdiocese. Lutheran archdiocese Uppsala is the seat of the Lutheran Archbishop of Uppsala. Th ...

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 ...

History and architecture

Alsike Church stands by a formerly important sea-route linking

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Located north of the c ...

Sigtuna Sigtuna () is a locality situated in Sigtuna Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 8,444 inhabitants in 2010. It is the namesake of the municipality even though the seat is in Märsta. Sigtuna is for historical reasons often still referr ...

and Stockholm, in an area characterised by its old cultural landscape. Although the oldest parts of the presently visible church date from the 13th century, it was probably pre-dated by an earlier wooden church. The church is constructed largely in brick, a material not usually used in medieval churches in Uppland ( fieldstone was often the material of choice). The use of brick may be explained by the vicinity to the more costly churches in

or Sko Abbey near

Skokloster Castle Skokloster Castle ( sv, Skoklosters slott) is a Swedish Baroque castle built between 1654 and 1676 by Carl Gustaf Wrangel, located on a peninsula of Lake Mälaren between Stockholm and Uppsala. It became a state museum in the 1970s and displays co ...

(''Skoklosters slott''). The main part of the church was probably built circa 1250-1350. The tower and the

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 ...

date from the 15th century, and during the same century the church was also equipped with mural-decorated vaults; due to later damage these have been rebuilt and only fragments of the murals still remain. The church was rebuilt during the mid-19th century. Two

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 wi ...

s were added, and the exterior whitewashed. Inside the church was equipped with a new pulpit and new

pews A pew () is a long bench (furniture), bench seat or enclosed box, used for seating Member (local church), members of a Church (congregation), congregation or choir in a Church (building), church, synagogue or sometimes a courtroom. Overview ...

. In 1910-11, the church was redecorated internally with paintings in Art Nouveau style by architect Sigurd Curman (1879-1966). During repairs in 1947 a

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 d ...

was discovered in the church; it is displayed at the church entrance. The church is characterised by a mix of

medieval 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 ...

and neoclassical styles as a result of the reconstruction during the 19th century. Among the furnishings, a Venetian crucifix from 1600 and a figure of Christ from the 15th century are noteworthy.

References

External links

official website
* {{Churches in Uppland 13th-century churches in Sweden Churches in Uppsala County Churches in the Diocese of Uppsala Churches converted from the Roman Catholic Church to the Church of Sweden Art Nouveau church buildings in Sweden