Baltaks kyrka stands just south of Tidaholm in Västra Götaland, part of Skara diocese. This early twentieth-century church replaced a medieval predecessor demolished amid strong local protest, leaving the parish without a church of its own for nearly eighty years.
The medieval church at Baltak stood on a low hill west of the river Tidan, probably built in the twelfth or thirteenth century. Tradition holds it was funded by a nobleman named Balte, remembered as its founder. In 1839 the old church was pulled down despite fierce opposition from parishioners, and Baltak was merged with Agnetorp to share the newly built Tidaholm church instead. A copper-clad wooden cross was later raised on the abandoned site, where open-air summer services have sometimes been held. Foundations of sandstone still survive there, showing traces of a narrower chancel with an apse and what may once have been a tower.
Industrial growth around Tidaholm's harnessed waterfall increased the local population sharply by the late nineteenth century, prompting the parish to build a church of its own again. Designed by the Stockholm architect Georg A. Nilsson in a national romantic style, the new stone church was completed in 1917 and consecrated on the second Sunday of Advent that year by Bishop Hjalmar Danell, seventy-eight years after the old church's demolition.
Several small stone carvings rescued from the medieval church were later set into the new building, including a relief on the south wall said to depict Balte himself, along with a figure thought to represent a bishop.
A thorough restoration in the early 1950s, carried out by Adolf Niklasson, gave the interior much of its present appearance. The altarpiece, a relief showing the shepherds and the Magi adoring the infant Christ, was carved by Arvid Bryth, and the chancel window above it, with scenes from the life of Jesus, is the work of Simon Sörman. A large triumphal crucifix made in Germany, donated by the factory director Otto Scholtz of Holma fabriker, originally hung above the altar but was moved to the north chancel wall during this restoration.
Other furnishings include a stone font and an organ of thirteen stops, built in 1917 and rebuilt in 1952. Much of the church's textile decoration has been contributed over the years by the parish's needlework guilds.
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Tidaholms pastorat
Tidaholms pastorat
Baltaks kyrka stands just south of Tidaholm in Västra Götaland, part of Skara diocese. This early twentieth-century church replaced a medieval predecessor demolished amid strong local protest, leaving the parish without a church of its own for nearly eighty years.
522 92, Tidaholm
Explore this church: Baltaks kyrkaChurch information: Svenska kyrkan, Platser · CC BY 4.0. Each church page includes its credits and visiting notes.
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View church details: Jällby kyrkaSources, credits and English adaptations are identified on each church page. Provider data: Svenska kyrkan, Platser · CC BY 4.0.
Provider catalogue data: Svenska kyrkan, Platser, CC BY 4.0. Separately credited descriptions retain their stated source and licence terms. Catalogue and visiting data reformatted from the provider. The English guide combines and abridges separately credited sources below.
Provider record updated: 11 Aug 2026. This is not an independent verification date.
Source record: 711bf952-82df-4b69-a223-8c9bbff8fc34
This English guide combines, abridges and translates the sources below with AI assistance, with editorial contributions by Churches in Sweden. It has not been independently verified. The adapted guide text is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Photographs and map data have their own terms.