Ängsö kyrka

The church was built around 1340 largely at the expense of Nils Abjörnsson, then owner of Ängsö slott, as a private manor church that also served as the parish church from the outset. Unusually for its age, it is constructed entirely of brick, with a cross-shaped plan, a narrow west tower and a three-sided chancel. Nils Abjörnsson's close ties to King Magnus Eriksson brought his family remarkable independence, including freedom from taxes and the right to appoint the parish priest, a privilege the estate's owners retained into the 1920s.

The six original brick vaults carry elaborate medieval murals, only rediscovered and uncovered in the early 1970s after having been limewashed over, probably in 1711. They depict scenes from the Old Testament, the childhood of Christ and the Passion, and include what is described as the oldest known depiction of Sweden's Tre Kronor coat of arms. Fragments on the walls show saints, scenes from the life of Christ and an unusual, still unexplained motif of a tree with winged dragons among its branches.

Over the centuries the building was altered by successive owners. In the 1630s the south transept was converted into a burial chapel for the Sparre family, and in the early eighteenth century, after the church had fallen into disrepair, new owners the Piper family carried out substantial renovation, later adding a burial chapel east of the chancel. In the 1740s the architect Carl Hårleman, who also worked on Ängsö slott, designed the present west tower, its obelisk-shaped spire inspired by Västerås Cathedral. Further changes followed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including new window tracery and the limestone floor laid in 1803.

Among the church's furnishings is a sandstone font from around 1200, apparently older than the church itself, along with a chalice and paten possibly contemporary with the building. A well-preserved fifteenth-century shrine with a carved figure of Saint Anne, the Virgin and Christ Child stands in the south transept, and two fifteenth-century chasubles survive, one embroidered in the workshop associated with the painter Albertus Pictor. The altarpiece was created in 1736 by Johan Jerling for Christina Piper, its open arch offering a view through to the marble sarcophagi in the burial chapel beyond.

The church also houses a mechanical organ built by Olof Schwan in 1781 and donated by Adolf Ludvig Piper; it is considered one of Sweden's best-preserved eighteenth-century organs, restored close to its original condition in 1998. In the south transept, a stone said to come from a nearby giant's cauldron is known locally as the Trollstenen, reputedly bringing misfortune to anyone who touches it.