Tuna Church ( sv, Tuna kyrka) is a medieval church located north-east of Uppsala in Uppsala County, 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).

History and architecture

The church was probably built at the end of the 13th century, with the church porch and

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 ...

being later medieval extensions. The interior of the church was altered in the 15th century, when a

vaulted ceiling In architecture, a vault (French ''voûte'', from Italian ''volta'') is a self-supporting arched form, usually of stone or brick, serving to cover a space with a ceiling or roof. As in building an arch, a temporary support is needed while ring ...

replaced an earlier, wooden ceiling. The church was heavily renovated in the 1890s, when the medieval

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 were uncovered and insensitively restored. They were originally probably made by a local artist. The wooden belfry of the church was built in 1768. The design of the church is typical for north-eastern Uppland, but the unusual use of

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 ...

rather than

fieldstone Fieldstone is a naturally occurring type of stone, which lies at or near the surface of the Earth. Fieldstone is a nuisance for farmers seeking to expand their land under cultivation, but at some point it began to be used as a construction mate ...

as building material as well as the placement of the entrance at the western gable indicates influences from the type of architecture popular among mendicant orders. The church still contains several medieval items: a couple of wooden sculptures of saints (including Bridget of Sweden), a decorated

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). ...

and a paten of gilded copper. Other, post-Reformation furnishings include 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 ...

(1674) and an richly decorated chasuble from 1662.

References

External links

* {{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