Jättendals kyrka

A stone church was built here in the thirteenth century and survived until 1800, when it was destroyed by fire. Parts of the north and east walls, along with a sacristy added in 1775, were retained when rebuilding began the following year. Construction of the present church started in 1801 and it came into use in 1802, though the interior fittings were not completed until 1824, when the church was consecrated by Archbishop Carl von Rosenstein.

The building is a single-nave hall church with a west tower and a north sacristy. Its walls are natural stone masonry, rendered and pierced by round-arched window openings. The pulpit, carved in Neoclassical style by the sculptor Jonas Edler, was not installed until 1813, some years after the church itself opened.

Several items rescued or acquired after the fire give the interior a layered history. Two number boards flanking the altar came from Hudiksvall church, donated to help furnish the rebuilt interior. From the earlier medieval church, a thirteenth-century bronze incense burner has survived, along with a communion vessel and paten also said to date from the Middle Ages. The larger of the two tower bells was cast in 1802 by Pehr Öberg of Hudiksvall, and the smaller in 1872 by N. P. Linderberg of Sundsvall. A votive ship made by the fisherman Per Albert Harning also hangs in the church, a reminder of the coastal community it has long served.

Outside the west entrance stands a runestone (Hs 21), carved sometime in the eleventh century and notable as the work of Gunnborga den goda, recorded as the only securely identified female rune-carver in Sweden. Two small crosses cut into the stone suggest that Christianity had already taken hold in the area by that time. The stone was formerly built into the south wall of the older church, and for a period even served as a step at the entrance of the new one, before being given its present position.

The church has a mechanical organ built in 1839 by Lars Niclas Nordqvist of Alfta, later renovated in the twentieth century, and a smaller mechanical choir organ added in 1974.