Årsunda kyrka

The church's origins date to the 1200s, making it the oldest in its parish, and much of its medieval character survives despite later alterations. The eastern part of the nave preserves an essentially intact medieval hall church, vaulted in the late 1400s or early 1500s and decorated with contemporary wall paintings attributed to the so-called Tierp group. A major rebuilding between 1768 and 1774 added a west tower and a vaulted bay to the nave, along with a new sacristy, giving the church its whitewashed exterior with round-arched windows that visitors see today. A significant restoration in 1924, led by architect Sven Brandel and marked by a reopening service conducted by Archbishop Nathan Söderblom, shaped much of the homogeneous medieval interior now on display.

The carved oak altarpiece, made in Antwerp around 1510, is one of the church's most notable furnishings and has reportedly been in continuous use since it arrived. A well-known local legend holds that the costly altarpiece was originally destined for a neighbouring parish, but that a resourceful local priest contrived for it to end up in Årsunda instead — a colourful story rather than a documented fact.

Other early furnishings include a stone font with bowl and base from the 1200s, and several wooden crucifixes and figures, among them a 13th-century oak crucifix, a further crucifix from a Mälardalen workshop of around 1300, and carved figures of Saint Olav, Mary Magdalene and a Madonna, the latter two attributed to workshops in Norrland active in the second half of the 1400s. The pulpit dates from 1678 and is the work of pulpit-maker Olof Persson of Sala.

In the tower chamber stands a runestone from the 1000s, carrying imagery from the Norse legend of Sigurd Fafnesbane alongside a Christian cross — evidence, it is suggested, that Christianity had already reached Årsunda by that time. It is one of three runestones in Gästrikland bearing scenes from this saga, the others being at Ockelbo and Österfärnebo.

The church's organ has a complex history. Its original case houses a 1714 instrument by Johan Niclas Cahman, one of the foremost Swedish organ builders of his era, built originally for Ovansjö church and acquired by Årsunda in 1789. The mechanical organ was dismantled in 1924 when a new pneumatic instrument was installed behind the historic façade; the older Cahman pipework was later reinstated and restored between 1978 and 1980, and a further chancel organ was added in 1984.