Svärdsjö kyrka

According to tradition recorded in the seventeenth century, a church has stood at or near this site since 1213, though it remains uncertain whether that earliest building actually occupied the present location. What is better documented is that a stone church was built during the fourteenth century and completed by 1405, its size corresponding to the two eastern bays of today's building. The vaults were not added until the later fifteenth century, when they were also decorated with painted ceilings; these were probably limewashed over in the late 1600s and only uncovered again in 1906.

The roof structure is one of the more remarkable survivals here: much of it dates from the fourteenth or early fifteenth century, with 34 Gothic roof trusses in the nave, some possibly medieval copies. Tool marks in the timber suggest at least two carpenters worked on the earliest trusses, one of them left-handed, a small detail that brings the building's medieval craftsmen vividly to life.

The church was enlarged several times during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and took its current form, including the tower, in 1873. A further restoration took place in 1920–1921 under Sigurd Curman, a leading figure in Swedish church conservation of the period. On the eastern roof ridge sit two gilded crowns bearing Latin inscriptions associated with Gustav Vasa and Queen Christina; local tradition links several episodes of Gustav Vasa's flight from Danish forces to the Svärdsjö area, and the crowns are said to commemorate this connection, though such traditions should be treated as legend rather than verified history.

Among the furnishings, the font dates from the thirteenth century and is said to remain in use. The altarpiece was made by Erich Bergman in 1716, and the church also holds a triumphal crucifix from the late fifteenth century and a pulpit from the mid-seventeenth century.

The church has had a succession of organs since at least 1623, with instruments built or rebuilt over the centuries by various makers. The current main organ was built in 1978 by Olof Hammarberg of Gothenburg, incorporating the façade and speaking front pipes from an organ of 1738, while a separate choir organ of 1985, also by Hammarberg, has a façade originally made in 1734 for Avesta church and later rescued after fire damage.