Ytterlännäs Gamla kyrka

The church stands on a site that tradition holds was once used for pagan worship before Christianity took hold in the 11th century. According to local tradition, the church was built by six farmers from surrounding villages, a arrangement echoed in medieval Swedish law, which gave groups of farmers the right to build a church and support a priest. The original walls were built thick and sturdy from grey stone, with narrow window openings and an iron-bound door, reputedly to keep out both raiders and, according to belief at the time, evil spirits.

During the 15th century the church was substantially remodelled: a sacristy and porch were added, the chancel widened, windows enlarged, and brick vaulting with spiral-patterned piers raised the roofline. This was also when the church's extensive murals were painted, depicting the four evangelists and several female saints, part of a wider tradition of travelling painters who worked across churches in the region. A carved altar cabinet from southern Sweden, in Lübeck style, arrived around the same time, along with the church's Gotland marble font and triumphal crucifix, both dated to the 14th century.

One of the most curious items is a bronze door-knocker in the form of a lion's head, thought to date from as early as the 9th century, making it older than the church itself. Its origin is debated: some connect it to Hildesheim, others to Byzantine craftsmanship from the eastern Mediterranean, possibly brought back by Vikings as a gift or spoils of war.

By the mid-19th century, after a new parish church had been built nearby, there was strong local support for demolishing the old building. It was saved through the intervention of a local landowner and further donations, and a decision was taken in 1850 that it should remain undisturbed. The last regular service was held here in 1854, and the church later became a focus for restoration efforts, including fundraising drives in the 1930s and documentary filming in the 1960s and 1970s.

Among the furnishings, the wooden benches, pulpit, altarpiece and a carved depiction of the Last Supper with the twelve disciples all date from the 18th century, along with several of the choir lofts. The church's most celebrated devotional figure, the so-called Ytterlännäs Madonna from the workshop of Haaken Gulleson, is believed to have arrived as a gift from an archbishop visiting the parish in the early 16th century; four smaller companion figures once accompanying it have since been lost.