Lunds Allhelgonakyrka

The church was built between 1887 and 1891 as Lund's first newly constructed church since the Middle Ages, intended to relieve pressure on the cathedral. Accounts suggest the growing congregation, swelled by a rising population moving into the city from the surrounding countryside, meant the cathedral's two Sunday services could no longer accommodate everyone. Bishop Johan Henrik Thomander is said to have felt the cathedral had become too small and lacked sufficient grandeur, prompting calls for a new, more monumental church.

The building's 72-metre tower makes it a prominent feature of the Lund skyline, and the church can seat around 2,000 people. Its Gothic Revival character is expressed throughout in painted ceilings, patterned floors, carved woodwork and elaborate stained glass. Seven tall windows at the chancel, made in Innsbruck, depict scenes from the Acts of the Apostles relating to Christ's Ascension and the early life of the Church, touching on themes such as the Holy Spirit, preaching, prayer and the sacraments.

A distinctive feature are the carved creatures found throughout the building: inside, they support the gallery and serve as lamp-holders on the pillars, while outside similar grotesque figures act as gargoyles, channelling rainwater from the roof. According to a local story, Zettervall was inspired by the gargoyles of Notre-Dame in Paris during a visit there, and brought the idea back to Lund. Such carved beasts were a common feature of Gothic architecture, traditionally thought to ward off evil as well as serve a practical drainage function. The altar, made of unpolished cement, and a wooden altarpiece carved by Carl Johan Dyfverman depicting the crucifixion with the Virgin Mary and St John, are among the church's notable furnishings, along with decorative paintings by Svante Thulin.

The church stands on land once occupied by Allhelgonaklostret, the oldest monastery in Lund and in the whole of Skåne, thought to have been founded in the 1070s under the Benedictine order. It fell into ruin after the Reformation reached Denmark in 1536, with its remaining structures eventually demolished in the early 1700s; only fragmentary remains survive today, north of the University Library. The site also once held the medieval Sankt Olofs kyrka, named after the Norwegian royal saint Olof, who died in battle in 1030 and became one of the first saints venerated in the Nordic region. Excavations have uncovered graves dating from the 11th century in the surrounding ground, though no definite trace of an earlier timber or stone church has been confirmed; it may have stood beneath the present church's western end or nearby.

The church's main organ, built in 1969 by A. Mårtenssons Orgelfabrik, incorporates some pipework from its 1890s predecessor, and a smaller mechanical organ near the altar dates from the 1960s.