Hedared stave church

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Hedared Stave Church of Sweden

Hedared Stave Church is a stave church situated in Hedared between Alingsås and Borås in Västra Götaland county, in the west of Sweden.

It is Sweden's only preserved medieval stave church and for a long time it was assumed Hedared stave church dated to early medieval times (12th century - 14th century) because it was built as a stave church. Later dendrochronological dating concluded the logs date to some time around 1498-1503, with 1501 as the most likely year, or shortly thereafter to adjust for drying of the logs as was common for this type of church. There also exists a 1506 letter from the bishop with a mention of the construction of the church, — kyrkans uppbyggande.

interior view

The interior is tiny (35 square meters) and very plain, and when originally built, the church had only walls and a roof, earth floor and no windows. It has been modified and added to a couple of times, gaining wooden floor in 1735 and the present windows in 1781. Before that it only had a small (lysglugg). In 1901 its exterior was restored to be as original as possible, but the windows were kept. In 1934-35 the interior was restored, and when removing the inner walls an altar painting was discovered. It was painted directly on the wall. A more advanced restoration took place in the 1990s. The church was raised some 70 centimetres, and the old wooden ground was replaced.

There is an old altar (kalk) in the church, dating from the 13th century, wooden sculptures of Virgin Mary and Saint Franciskus and beautiful old paintings. Those are done by Johan Ehrenfrid, although the altar painting is older and assumed to have been made some time during the medieval times. As the church is dated very late in the medieval times this could indicate that the painting was done when the church was built.