Strängnäs Cathedral: A Medieval Brick Gothic Cathedral in Sweden
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Sweden
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Swedish
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page20 sections
History
Strängnäs Cathedral is a Lutheran cathedral in Strängnäs, Sweden, a medieval Scandinavian Brick Gothic church dedicated to the Apostles Peter and Paul. It developed from a twelfth-century wooden church into the seat of the Diocese of Strängnäs, after serving as a Roman Catholic church before the Protestant Reformation.
Before and during the first construction
A wooden stave church stood on the site by the early twelfth century, probably incorporating leaf ornament associated with the Viking period. The location was also linked to pagan Viking sacrificial rites and was identified as the place where the missionary Saint Eskil was killed in the mid-eleventh century.
Dominicans arrived in Strängnäs during the 1250s and began a convent and church on the town’s northern hill, at the place associated with Eskil’s martyrdom. Their church and the early cathedral were twin churches. Construction of the new brick church began in the 1250s, around the existing wooden building, allowing worship to continue while the new structure rose.
The first phase produced a rectangular hall church, now known as the core of the cathedral. It was complete by the 1330s. The partially finished church may have been consecrated by Bishop Anund Jonsson in the summer of 1291, but it burned on the same day. Information about the building is limited until the 1330s, when Bishop Styrbjörn carried out another consecration in 1334.
Medieval expansion
A major enlargement began around 1342. Chapels were added successively along the southern side, including the Stenbock Chapel around 1340 to 1345, the tomb chapel of Carl Carlsson Gyllenhielm, and the Djäkne Chapel. A Marian Chapel was added toward the western end of the southern side around 1404, followed by the von Hessenstein Chapel around 1425.
The nave vaults received painted decoration during the fourteenth century. The west tower was built between 1424 and 1444. Between 1448 and 1462, builders constructed the polygonal high chancel, the passage around it, and the northern sacristy, a room for liturgical furnishings and preparation for worship. After the chancel received wall paintings, it was consecrated on Saint John’s Eve in 1462.
Bishop Kort Rogge and the late medieval cathedral
Bishop Kort Rogge, appointed in 1479, was politically active and closely involved in the cathedral’s construction. After the city fire of 1473, damaged parts of the building were repaired. Rogge also had the tower raised and the whole church placed beneath a single roof. By about 1500, another side chapel and an additional northern sacristy had been added.
Rogge gave the cathedral important furnishings, including major altar cloths made in Flanders and completed in Brussels in 1490. He also donated the large winged high altarpiece, made in Flanders between 1480 and 1490 and completed in Brussels in 1490. A winged altarpiece has hinged sections that can be opened or closed, and this work presents scenes from the Nativity and the Passion of Christ.
Reformation, burials, and later changes
The cathedral changed from Roman Catholic to Lutheran use during the Protestant Reformation, the sixteenth-century movement that established Protestant churches, including the Church of Sweden, in territories formerly governed by the Roman Catholic Church. Isabella Johansdotter, daughter of King John III of Sweden and Catherine Jagiellonica, was buried here in 1566 after dying in infancy. Other burials include Charles IX of Sweden, Christina of Holstein-Gottorp, John Casimir of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, Katharina Vasa, Sten Sture the Elder, Maria of Palatinate-Simmern, and Gustaf Otto Stenbock.
The large western portal was completed in 1648. Between 1740 and 1742, the tower received its present hood and appearance, probably to designs by Carl Hårleman. The hood is Baroque in style.
Restoration and commemoration
Fredrik Lilljekvist led a major restoration from 1907 to 1910, with Sigurd Curman as supervisor. The work addressed the benches, column lighting, and furnishings of the organ gallery. It sought to respect the cathedral’s earlier fabric while retaining later historical additions, helping preserve its medieval character.
The Martyrs’ Chapel was consecrated on 26 December 1999 in one of the sacristies. It commemorates martyrs of the Christian Church throughout the world. Strängnäs Cathedral is protected as a historic ecclesiastical monument under Chapter 4 of Sweden’s Cultural Heritage Act and is designated as a matter of national interest. Its construction before 1939 provides the basis for this statutory protection.
Library and organ traditions
The cathedral library began in 1316, when the Dominican monastery at Strängnäs received a bequest of books. Bishops Kort Rogge and Johannes Matthiæ later enlarged the collection. In the seventeenth century, Queen Christina added books taken as war booty, particularly from Prague, Olmütz, and Nikolsburg. Gifts and bequests from diocesan clergy continued to increase the collection in later centuries.
The library occupied the former school building until the nineteenth century and is now housed in the Library Chancel in the cathedral’s northwestern corner. Henrik Aminson published a catalogue of more than 600 pages in 1863, followed by a two-volume printed catalogue in 2017.
The cathedral organ was damaged in the city fire of 12 June 1473. An organist is recorded in 1575, and the organ builder Henrik completed an instrument in 1578. Repairs followed during the 1580s. After another fire in 1631, Philip Eisenmenger built a new organ in 1636, with a case by Michael Rechner. An eight-stop Rückpositiv, a smaller organ division placed behind the organist, was completed in 1638, and the full instrument was finished in 1648.
Johann Niclas Cahman renovated the organ in 1703 and carried out another extensive renovation between 1715 and 1720, adding a new pedal division and bellows. A fire in 1723 led Olof Hedlund to make the instrument playable again in 1734. Daniel Strähle renewed it in 1745, and defects identified in 1754 were repaired in 1758.
Further repairs were approved in 1776 by Governor Carl Lagerbring and carried out by Olof Schwan in 1778. The organ had deteriorated again by 1799, after which Johan Ewerhardt built a new forty-stop instrument, accepted by Schwan in 1804. Erik Adolph Setterquist and Per Larsson Akerman built another organ between 1859 and 1860. Bishop Thure Annerstedt consecrated it on 4 November 1860, and the former twelve-stop organ was given to Dunkers Church.
During the 1907 to 1910 restoration, the organ was moved from the western gallery to a new gallery in the northern ambulatory. Nils Hammarberg rebuilt it in 1944. Troels and Finn Krohn installed a new four-manual organ in 1971 while retaining the 1860 pipes. Its electrical system was rebuilt in 1986 and expanded with a computer in 1994.
On 31 July 2018, the burial regalia of Charles IX and Christina of Holstein-Gottorp, consisting of two crowns and an orb, were stolen during a daylight robbery. The objects were recovered in Stockholm in February 2019 after the thieves escaped by boat. One man faced trial, and the regalia were valued at more than six million euros.
Remains
Strängnäs Cathedral is a three-aisled medieval brick church in Scandinavian Brick Gothic, a northern European tradition in which brick replaced or supplemented the cut stone used in many Gothic buildings. The building is approximately 93 metres long and 33 metres wide. Its plan combines a nave, a polygonally closed high chancel, a west tower, an ambulatory around the chancel, side chapels, and a northern sacristy.
Church plan and exterior fabric
The nave has a gabled central roof, while the side aisles have separate lean-to roofs. The building also includes a hipped roof form with an intervening vertical section containing windows. The church is vaulted, and the high chancel has a star vault. The cathedral’s early brick core was built around the former wooden church. The later high chancel is three-aisled and polygonally closed, with the ambulatory and northern sacristy forming its eastern architectural group.
West tower and portals
The cathedral’s only tower is approximately 75 metres high. Its ground floor contains the entrance portal, while remains of the original church portal survive between the tower and the nave. The tower was raised during the late fifteenth-century works associated with Bishop Kort Rogge, and its present hood dates from 1740 to 1742.
Chapels and northern rooms
Southern chapels
The southern side contains the Stenbock Chapel, the tomb chapel of Carl Carlsson Gyllenhielm, and the Djäkne Chapel. Toward the western end stands the Marian Chapel, while the von Hessenstein Chapel dates from around 1425. A further side chapel was added by about 1500.
Northern sacristies
The northern side includes the sacristy constructed with the high chancel between 1448 and 1462 and an additional northern sacristy added by about 1500. The northwestern corner contains the Library Chancel, a designated chancel space used to house the cathedral library.
Paintings and liturgical furnishings
Medieval painted decoration
The high chancel retains wall paintings by an unidentified master. Medieval painted decoration also survives on the nave vaults, linking the interior’s visual program to its fourteenth-century development.
High altar and winged altarpiece
A large triptych reredos dominates the high altar at the eastern end. A triptych is a three-part altarpiece, often fitted with hinged wings. The cathedral’s large winged altarpiece was made in Flanders between 1480 and 1490 and completed in Brussels in 1490. It depicts the Nativity narrative and the Passion of Christ and is described as Sweden’s oldest winged altarpiece.
Marian altarpiece and baptismal furnishings
The Marian altarpiece dates from 1507 to 1508 and is attributed to the workshop of Jan Borman. The twelfth-century baptismal font has a silver bowl made by Anna-Stina Åberg in 1992. A separate bronze baptismal basin was cast around 1400.
Pulpit and commemorative monuments
The pulpit was made in 1789 by the court sculptor Pehr Ljung in the Gustavian style. A limestone monument showing Olaus Petri and Laurentius Andreae was made by Erik Strand in 1952 for the four-hundredth anniversary of the introduction of the Reformation in Sweden. A reserved or manorial pew may have served the bishop, and a tombstone commemorates Bishop Thomas, who died in 1443.
Runic and sculptural remains
Runic inscriptions or fragments known as the Ingvar stones, Sö 277, Sö 279, and Sö 281, are built into or associated with the southern wall. Four additional runic stones are present in the church, and Sö 278 may also belong to the Ingvar group.
The Martyrs’ Chapel contains, among its furnishings, a late-fifteenth-century sculpture of Saint Eric by the Lübeck master Bernt Notke. Saint Eric is traditionally regarded as a king and martyr of Sweden.
Organ and library spaces
The present organ occupies a gallery in the northern ambulatory, after its relocation from the western gallery during the 1907 to 1910 restoration. The 1971 instrument has four manuals, mechanical action, electric stop action, and electric couplers. Its listed couplings are I/P, II/P, III/P, IV/P, I/II, III/II, and IV/II. The cathedral library remains housed in its dedicated Library Chancel in the northwestern corner.
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