Aspeboda kyrka

According to local tradition, a medieval chapel once stood a few kilometres from the present church, near Kapellsbacken, though only faint traces of a foundation survive. In 1609 a chapel known as the Chapel of the Holy Spirit was built on the current site, later replaced in 1681 by a larger timber church with a distinctive main spire and four corner turrets, earning it the name the Temple of Five Spires. This wooden church, clad in red-painted shingles, served the growing parish for nearly three centuries.

Disaster struck in August 1959. The church was undergoing restoration and its painted seventeenth-century ceiling panels had been removed for safekeeping when fire broke out, destroying the building within minutes along with most of its furnishings. The free-standing bell tower and its bells survived, and remarkably so did the removed ceiling panels, now valued as rare examples of Renaissance-style painting from this northern latitude.

Rebuilding proved contentious. Timber of the right quality was hard to source, and concerns over heating costs and fire risk led the parish, after some disagreement, to accept a modern design in brick by architect Rolf Bergh rather than a faithful timber reconstruction. The new church, consecrated at Midsummer 1963, echoes its predecessor's form through its roof turret and four corner spires, said to represent the four evangelists, and through brickwork patterned to recall the old shingle cladding. A cornerstone from the 1681 church was set into the new building's north-east corner, and the surviving Renaissance ceiling paintings were reinstalled inside.

Visitors can see furnishings created for the new church by several twentieth-century Swedish artists, including an altarpiece by sculptor Ivar Lindekrantz, a pulpit with woven textile panels depicting Christ calming the storm, and a font with a crystal bowl. Fragments of an old gravestone belonging to the Swinhufvud family, local benefactors, are mounted on a pillar, and a model of the earlier five-spired timber church gives an impression of what was lost in the fire.

The church bells also tell part of the story: the largest bell was donated in 1625 by the Swinhufvud family, while a smaller bell dates from 1611, both predating the fire and the current building. The church has had several organs over its history, the earliest recorded from 1631, with the present mechanical instrument installed in 1963 following the loss of its predecessor in the blaze.