Rasbokil Church ( sv, Rasbokils kyrka) is a medieval church located north-east of

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 ...

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 is part of 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 ...

(

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

The church appears to have been preceded by an earlier church, possibly a wooden church, and stones from an earlier building have been incorporated into the presently visible building. The current church was built at the end of the 15th century or around 1500 and has retained its original appearance largely unchanged. During the 18th century most of the windows were enlarged and the vaulting of the church repaired; at that time the frescos were also covered with

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. ...

, only to be uncovered and restored during a renovation in 1909-10 under the guidance of architect Sigurd Curman. A window was also made in the north wall of the church in 1870. The church is one of very few medieval churches in Sweden which has never been substantially rebuilt or altered. The church is constructed of fieldstone with decorated brick gables. It has a yellow exterior with details painted whitem and the steep gable roof has a covering of shingle. The church has a simple floor-plan consisting of a single

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 sections of star-shaped vaults, followed by a

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 sp ...

of equal width with a ceiling supported by a rib vault. The design is typical for countryside churches in Uppland built 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 ...

. The vaults were decorated with frescos probably during the 1520s by an anonymous workshop sometimes referred to as ''Rasbokilsmästaren'' ("the Rasbokil master"). In comparison with other

church frescos in Sweden Church murals or church wall paintings are mostly medieval paintings found in several Swedish churches. They usually adorn the vaults or walls of the buildings. In Swedish they are sometimes referred to as ''kalkmålningar'', literally "lime ...

, some of the frescos have unusual themes, including e.g. depictions of the family trees of Jesus and Mary. The frescos have been described as being of "distinguished quality". Most of the church's furnishings date from the time after the

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 ...

. These include the pulpit, which is from 1648 and given as a gift to the church by Colonel Jurgen Schildt after his homecoming from the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battle ...

. The altarpiece is also from the 17th century; its top part with a painting was restored in the 1930s after its Baroque frame was found in pieces in the belfry of the church. The decorated door of 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 ...

dates from the reign of King Gustav III of Sweden and the organ is from 1829.

References

External links

Official site (in Swedish)
* {{Churches in Uppland Churches in Uppsala County Churches in the Diocese of Uppsala Churches converted from the Roman Catholic Church to the Church of Sweden Church frescos in Sweden