Ammarnäs kyrka

The present church was built between 1910 and 1912 by the master builder Karl August Eriksson of Bräskafors, to designs by the architect Torben Grut, and was consecrated in July 1912. It replaced an earlier chapel erected at Ammarnäs in 1858, some materials from which were reused in the new building. That first chapel had been requested by the Sámi reindeer herders of the area, who had previously travelled to services at Jillesnåle chapel further away; as herding patterns shifted closer to the Norwegian border, a chapel nearer Ammarnäs became more practical.

A pastor's account from the early twentieth century described the old chapel as a bare timber structure with faded portraits of the king and queen beside the altar, a plain whitewashed altar and rail, and no gallery or organ — a stark contrast, visitors might reflect, to the building that succeeded it.

The current church is built in a National Romantic style, with a nave, an eastern sacristy and a small ridge turret above the west gable. Its most distinctive external feature is the roofing and cladding technique known as pärt, or fish-scale panelling: short, overlapping wooden shingles nailed from the bottom upward, creating a pattern resembling fish scales. Inside, the church is light and simply furnished, with an open pew arrangement and a panelled, angled ceiling. The chancel and sacristy were remodelled in 1953 to designs by Einar Lundberg, the altar wall was painted in 1967 (when a pulpit from the older chapel was also installed), and a restoration in 1992, led by Rolf Sixtensson, aimed to recover something of the church's original interior character.

Among the church's furnishings, two bells are of note: the first, cast in 1865, carries inscriptions entirely in Sámi, while the second, cast in 1924, bears inscriptions in both Swedish and Sámi. An earlier small pipe organ was brought here from Gargnäs church but no longer survives; the current instrument is an electric organ from 1982.

Adjoining the church is the Lapplatsen, a well-preserved Sámi church settlement of fourteen buildings, the oldest of which are small timber storehouses raised on posts, originally windowless. These were used by Sámi families for overnight stays during church festivals or visits down from their fell dwellings, and remain a rare and evocative survival of this way of life.