Biskopskulla Church

Last updated March 14, 2019

Biskopskulla Church (Swedish : Biskopskulla kyrka) is a medieval church in the Archdiocese of Uppsala (Church of Sweden) in Uppsala County, Sweden.

Swedish language North Germanic language spoken in Sweden

Swedish is a North Germanic language spoken natively by 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden, and in parts of Finland, where it has equal legal standing with Finnish. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and to some extent with Danish, although the degree of mutual intelligibility is largely dependent on the dialect and accent of the speaker. Both Norwegian and Danish are generally easier for Swedish speakers to read than to listen to because of difference in accent and tone when speaking. Swedish is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. It has the most speakers of the North Germanic languages.

The Archdiocese of Uppsala is one of the thirteen dioceses of the Church of Sweden and the only one having the status of an archdiocese.

The Church of Sweden is an Evangelical Lutheran national church in Sweden. A former state church, headquartered in Uppsala, with 6.0 million baptised members at year end 2017 it is the largest Christian denomination in Sweden.

History and architecture

The church dates from the Middle Ages and was probably originally built in a Romanesque style (probably during the 12th century) but was heavily rebuilt already in medieval times and attained its present form in the 14th or 15th century. The vaults of the church are of a type that was common before the 15th century, indicating it may have been rebuilt during the 14th century. Its western tower is at heart Gothic but with later changes, i.e. the roof and spire with a lantern which dates from the 18th century.^[1]^[2]

Middle Ages Period of European history from the 5th through the 15th centuries

In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history: classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is itself subdivided into the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages.

Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of medieval Europe characterized by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque style, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 11th century, this later date being the most commonly held. In the 12th century it developed into the Gothic style, marked by pointed arches. Examples of Romanesque architecture can be found across the continent, making it the first pan-European architectural style since Imperial Roman architecture. The Romanesque style in England is traditionally referred to as Norman architecture.

In architecture, a vault is a self-supporting arched form, usually of stone or brick, serving to cover a space with a ceiling or roof. The simplest kind of vault is the barrel vault, which is generally semicircular in shape. The barrel vault is a continuous arch, the length being greater than its diameter. As in building an arch, a temporary support is needed while rings of voussoirs are constructed and the rings placed in position. Until the topmost voussoir, the keystone, is positioned, the vault is not self-supporting. Where timber is easily obtained, this temporary support is provided by centering consisting of a framed truss with a semicircular or segmental head, which supports the voussoirs until the ring of the whole arch is completed. With a barrel vault, the centering can then be shifted on to support the next rings.

Inside the church walls are decorated with frescos in the style of the so-called Strängnäs School, which was particularly popular in neighbouring Södermanland. Biskopskulla Church is the northernmost church decorated with frescos of this style. The frescos depict religious themes. In the choir, there are representations of the four evangelists with their respective symbols and of the four doctors of the Church. In the nave, there are frescos with Marian themes and a depiction of the Last Judgment. The richly decorated church porch contains depictions of the Wheel of Furtune and Saint George and the Dragon.^[2]

Church frescos or church wall paintings are decorative paintings, mostly medieval, found in several Swedish churches where they adorn the vaults and sometimes walls of the buildings. Paintings survive in both wooden and stone churches. At least 444 such church frescos survive to this day, only a fraction of the original number; churches in Sweden during the Middle Ages were not considered complete until they were decorated internally with such frescos. Today, the rich heritage of church frescos in Sweden has been described as a unique treasure. While some have been covered with whitewash during later centuries and laboriously uncovered and restored, others have stayed untouched for centuries. The well-preserved status of many of the frescos can be attributed to the fact that the Lutheran reformation was not ubiquitously iconoclastic in Sweden, and to the relative absence of wars on Swedish soil.

Södermanland, sometimes referred to under its Latin form Sudermannia or Sudermania, is a historical province or landskap on the south eastern coast of Sweden. It borders Östergötland, Närke, Västmanland and Uppland. It is also bounded by lake Mälaren and the Baltic Sea.

A choir, also sometimes called quire, is the area of a church or cathedral that provides seating for the clergy and church choir. It is in the western part of the chancel, between the nave and the sanctuary, which houses the altar and Church tabernacle. In larger medieval churches it contained choir-stalls, seating aligned with the side of the church, so at right-angles to the seating for the congregation in the nave. Smaller medieval churches may not have a choir in the architectural sense at all, and they are often lacking in churches built by all denominations after the Protestant Reformation, though the Gothic Revival revived them as a distinct feature.

The church contains a medieval wooden triumphal cross and a baptismal font from the 13th century made of limestone from Gotland. Other furnishings are post-Reformation. These include the pulpit from 1686 (repainted and gilded in 1753), a former altarpiece from 1753, the organ from 1870, four iron chandeliers from the 18th century and a more recent baptismal font from 1965.^[1]^[2]

A baptismal font is an article of church furniture used for baptism.

Limestone Sedimentary rocks made of calcium carbonate

Limestone is a carbonate sedimentary rock that is often composed of the skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral, foraminifera, and molluscs. Its major materials are the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃). A closely related rock is dolostone, which contains a high percentage of the mineral dolomite, CaMg(CO₃)₂. In fact, in old USGS publications, dolostone was referred to as magnesian limestone, a term now reserved for magnesium-deficient dolostones or magnesium-rich limestones.

Gotland is a province, county, municipality, and diocese of Sweden. It is Sweden's largest island. The province includes the islands of Fårö and Gotska Sandön to the north, as well as the Karlsö Islands to the west. The population is 58,595, of which about 23,600 live in Visby, the main town. The island of Gotland and the other areas of the province of Gotland make up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area.

A renovation of the church was carried out in 1955.^[2]

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References

1 2 "Biskopskulla kyrka" (in Swedish). Church of Sweden . Retrieved 8 July 2017.
1 2 3 4 Jacobsson, Britta; Johansson, Eva; Johansson, Per; Andersson, Rolf (1990). Våra kyrkor (in Swedish). Västervik: Klarkullens förlag AB. p. 41. ISBN 91-971561-08.

External links

Official site (in Swedish)
Media related to Biskopskulla Church at Wikimedia Commons

Coordinates: 59°43′55″N17°11′51″E / 59.73194°N 17.19750°E / 59.73194; 17.19750

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[svkyrkan-1] 1 2 "Biskopskulla kyrka" (in Swedish). Church of Sweden . Retrieved 8 July 2017.

[varakyrkor-2] 1 2 3 4 Jacobsson, Britta; Johansson, Eva; Johansson, Per; Andersson, Rolf (1990). Våra kyrkor (in Swedish). Västervik: Klarkullens förlag AB. p. 41. ISBN 91-971561-08.

Biskopskulla Church

Contents

History and architecture

Related Research Articles

References

External links