Hällestad Church () is a medieval

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

church in

Torna Hällestad Torna Hällestad () is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality situated in Lund Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 584 inhabitants in 2010. History The town church (building), church, dating from the 12th century, features mural paintings from the ...

in the province of

Scania Scania ( ), also known by its native name of Skåne (), is the southernmost of the historical provinces of Sweden, provinces () of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous w ...

, Sweden. It belongs to the

Diocese of Lund The Diocese of Lund () is a diocese within the Church of Sweden which corresponds to the provinces of Blekinge and Skåne. There are 217 parishes within the diocese, the most significant number in any of the dioceses of the Church of Sweden. Th ...

History and architecture

The church probably dates from the 12th century, but little remains of the original church building due to subsequent reconstructions throughout the centuries. The

choir A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

and the

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform ("cross-shaped") cruciform plan, churches, in particular within the Romanesque architecture, Romanesque a ...

s seen today date from the 19th century. Immured in the church are three

runestone A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic alphabet, runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition of erecting runestones as a memorial to dead men began in the 4th centur ...

s from the 11th century, the so-called

Hällestad Runestones The Hällestad Runestones are three runestones located in the walls of Hällestad Church in Torna-Hällestad, about 20 kilometers east of Lund in Skåne, southern Sweden. Their Rundata identifiers are DR 295, 296, and 297. DR 295 is notable becau ...

. The church is also notable for its rich internal decoration of medieval murals. These date from circa 1460 and executed by

Nils Håkansson Nils Håkansson (Latinisation (literature), Latinized as Nicolaus Haquini) was a late medieval Swedish painter from Vadstena. Biography Håkansson, known as ''Vittskövlewikt:mästare#Swedish, mästaren,'' may have been the leader of a group of ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hallestad Church Churches in Skåne County Churches in the Diocese of Lund Churches converted from the Roman Catholic Church to the Church of Sweden Church frescos in Sweden Lund Municipality