Växjö Cathedral: Medieval Cathedral and Diocese Church in Sweden
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- 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 page17 sections
History
Växjö Cathedral is the principal church of the Diocese of Växjö in Sweden and serves both as the bishop’s church and as a parish church. Its first stone building was probably begun in the late 1160s, during the medieval formation of the diocese, and replaced or enclosed an earlier wooden church associated with the Christianization of Scandinavia. Before the Reformation it belonged to the Roman Catholic Church; it later became part of the Church of Sweden, Sweden’s Lutheran national church.
Early Christian site and medieval foundation
Tradition attributes the cathedral’s foundation to Saint Sigfrid, an English missionary traditionally associated with the establishment of Christianity in the Växjö region. It also says that he was buried at the site, although this foundation story is historically unreliable. A wooden church probably stood here in the eleventh century. Coins from that century and a Christian runestone indicate an early Christian presence, while a stone church was likely built around the older structure so that worship could continue during construction.
The medieval cathedral was dedicated to Saint Sigfrid and John the Baptist and contained Sigfrid’s relics. Its initial stone form probably comprised a nave, a narrower choir ending in an apse, and an auxiliary building north of the choir, with a possible counterpart to the south. A western tower was added somewhat later. The design was influenced by Lund Cathedral and was probably comparable to Rydaholm Church.
Thirteenth- and fourteenth-century expansion
Late in the thirteenth century, fighting damaged the tower, probably in 1276 or 1277. The tower may have served as an improvised fortification during the conflict. King Valdemar of Sweden later supplied funds for its rebuilding. During the same century, the choir and apse were transformed into a square choir with a transept, probably in connection with the creation of a formal cathedral chapter, the body of clergy assisting in the administration and worship of the cathedral.
A sacristy, a room for clergy preparation and the storage of liturgical objects, probably existed by the early fourteenth century. Danish and German soldiers robbed it in 1318. Further additions followed as Växjö expanded and received town privileges. A southern chapel and two transepts were added during the fourteenth century, leaving the cathedral with an irregular plan by the end of that period.
Late medieval hall church
Between approximately 1460 and 1500, extensive building work gave the cathedral a more unified form. The tower was raised and probably fitted with twin spires. A porch was placed before the north portal, another southern chapel was added, and uniform rib vaults were constructed. A chantry chapel, intended for commemorative or intercessory worship, occupied a southern extension of the tower. These changes transformed the building into a coherent hall church, in which the nave and aisles are approximately equal in height.
Reformation, warfare, and fire
The Reformation deprived the cathedral of many of its earlier sources of income. In 1570, during the Northern Seven Years’ War, Danish troops plundered and burned the building. King John III of Sweden granted the citizens of Växjö a three-year tax reprieve to help pay for repairs. The restoration lasted six years, although the tower was not fully repaired until 1585. The spires were redesigned, and a mechanical clock was installed on the west facade.
Danish troops occupied the cathedral as quarters in 1612. They destroyed the pews and burned the cathedral archive. A storm then damaged the spires in 1629, and they had to be replaced. In 1740, lightning caused a major fire that destroyed the roof, the uppermost part of the tower, and the eastern vaults. The surviving medieval furnishings were also lost. Repairs began in 1741 and continued into the 1770s. A hipped roof replaced the medieval roof, while the twin spires gave way to a single Classical-style tower designed by Carl Hårleman and modified by Carl Fredrik Adelcrantz after Hårleman’s death in 1753.
Nineteenth- and twentieth-century reconstruction
Renewed concern about fire safety grew after fires in Växjö during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Bishop and writer Esaias Tegnér and county governor Count Carl Mörner therefore commissioned Carl Georg Brunius to prepare a reconstruction plan. Despite opposition from the government agency responsible for state buildings, most of the proposals were carried out between 1849 and 1854. Further repairs and smaller alterations followed in the 1860s and 1880s.
Carl Möller directed a major interior redecoration in 1898 and 1899. The work brought a new sacristy, a new clock, stained-glass windows, murals on the walls and vaults, and Gothic Revival furnishings, a nineteenth-century interpretation of medieval Gothic design, made by local artisans. A thorough restoration in 1957 and 1958 uncovered and examined the foundations of the first stone church.
Between 1958 and 1960, Kurt von Schmalensee directed a broad reconstruction intended to recover aspects of the cathedral’s medieval appearance. Floors were renewed, walls and vaults were strengthened and partly rebuilt, a southern portal was added, and the windows and tower were altered. Two new spires were constructed, and the exterior was painted red after traces of that color were found during repairs. Less extensive work continued later in the twentieth century, including a restoration in 1995. The cathedral has protected historic-monument status under Chapter 4 of Sweden’s Cultural Heritage Act and is listed in the Swedish National Heritage Board’s buildings database.
Remains
Växjö Cathedral is a relatively small brick-and-stone hall church with a rectangular nave, two aisles, a broad western tower, and a square choir. The nave and aisles are of equal height, creating a unified interior space. The church is three bays wide and four bays long. A single copper roof extends over the nave, aisles, and choir, while the present high-pitched roof and twin-spired tower largely reflect the reconstruction of 1958 to 1960.
Medieval fabric and exterior
The tower base and nave pillars are the oldest parts of the present building and incorporate material from the twelfth century. The upper tower walls are largely medieval, and the choir walls preserve remains of the larger thirteenth-century choir. A medieval southern extension of the tower survives, while the northern tower addition dates from the 1750s. The eastern ends of both aisles were built in 1849 and 1850.
The exterior is chiefly red, with dressed stone around the windows, blind arcades, and other stone elements painted white. Blind arcades are recessed arches applied to a wall without open passages behind them. The west facade has additional blind arcades created during the 1950s restoration. The tower rises to 69.5 meters and has two tall spires and nine bell openings.
Entrances and tower spaces
Western entrance
The principal entrance occupies the base of the western tower. Its present form is largely mid-nineteenth-century, while the copper-covered doors and ornamental tympanum window date from the 1950s reconstruction. A glass windbreak by Irene Jarz, installed in 1996, stands inside the entrance, and an eighteenth-century memorial stone presents a brief history of the cathedral.
Southern entrance
A second entrance was created in the south wall during the 1950s work. This alteration belongs to the reconstruction that also changed the windows and tower and added the present twin spires.
Vaults and former chantry chapel
Vaulted ceiling
Thirteen vaults support the ceiling, seven of them medieval. Most of the medieval examples occupy the western part of the church. Their ribbed form draws on examples from Vadstena Abbey and on earlier architecture associated with the Teutonic Order. Comparable rib vaults survive in Saint Lawrence’s Church in Söderköping. A rib vault is a ceiling supported by projecting stone ribs.
Former chantry chapel
Traces of medieval wall paintings have been restored in the southwest corner, within the former chantry chapel. Glass doors decorated by Irene Jarz separate the chapel from the rest of the church. Its furnishings include an altar and cross by Jan Brazda and two stained-glass windows designed by Bo Beskow.
Interior furnishings and artworks
The interior is painted white and receives even light through windows of approximately equal size. All but one of the windows date from the 1950s restoration. Above the doorway to the nave is a stucco relief by Kajsa Mattas showing Christ giving a blessing. At the crossing, a stone marker bearing a stylized S and three crosses marks the place where Saint Sigfrid’s body was likely interred.
The present glass altarpiece, an artwork placed behind or above an altar, was installed in 2002 and designed by Bertil Vallien. Georg Engelhard Schröder’s painting of the Last Supper, dated 1733, hangs in the north aisle. It was originally made for the main altar. The altar, pulpit, and baptismal font associated with the 1950s restoration were made by Jan Brazda. A carpet around the altar was designed by Ulla Gowenius and made by Märta Måås-Fjetterström in 1995.
The cathedral contains stained glass by Bo Beskow, Erik Höglund, E. Lundqvist, and Jan Brazda. Erik Höglund made a late-twentieth-century glass candle holder, whose metal parts were made by Lars Larsson. Gothic Revival chandeliers hang in the western parts of both aisles and were probably donated by the opera singer Christina Nilsson. Two twentieth-century wooden sculptures in the nave depict Saint Peter and Saint Paul and were made by Eva Spångberg.
Bells and organs
A carillon installed in 1962 and inaugurated in 1963 contains 27 bells. A carillon is a set of tuned bells played from a keyboard or by an automatic mechanism. The cathedral also has five church bells and three organs. The largest organ retains a facade from the 1770s but received its present mechanism in 2002. The smaller organs date from 1984 and 2001 and stand in the north and south aisles.
Setting and associated features
The cathedral stands at the edge of Växjö’s oldest town area, close to Växjö Lake. Its south facade was once less than 20 meters from the lake shore, and the site may have been a pre-Christian marketplace or gathering place. Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century water-control measures, including the lowering of the lake level in 1814, left the shore much farther away. The cathedral now occupies a park laid out in 1879 on former cemetery ground.
The seventeenth-century former cathedral schoolhouse is the only surviving building from the group of church-related structures that surrounded the cathedral from the Middle Ages until the nineteenth century. A bronze statue of Esaias Tegnér, designed by Arvid Källström and made in 1926, stands between the cathedral and schoolhouse. A statue of Saint Sigfrid by Peter Linde was installed in front of the cathedral in 1999, and an eleventh-century Christian runestone stands beside the choir wall.
