Ärtemarks kyrka stands on a cultivated headland jutting into the lake Ärtingen in Bengtsfors kommun, Västra Götaland. A little over a kilometre north lies a small former parish centre at a road junction, while the town of Bengtsfors itself grew up later nearby.
Ärtemark is an example of a district whose centre of gravity shifted away from the old farming settlement to a newer town. Bengtsfors developed during the 20th century as an industrial town and railway junction, becoming a köping (market town) in 1926 and gaining its own centrally located church. Ärtemarks kyrka nonetheless remains the mother church of the parish, and its churchyard continues to serve as the burial ground for people from Bengtsfors.
The building consists of a nave with a three-sided chancel, a west tower and an attached sacristy. The oldest surviving fabric, the nave's western walls, is thought to date from the 13th century. The church was extended eastward in 1728 with the addition of the three-sided chancel, and the tower was built in 1893 during a remodelling that gave the exterior its present neo-Gothic character, with pointed-arch windows and louvred openings.
Inside, the altarpiece is a provincial baroque work of 1739 by the sculptor Nils Falk, coloured the following year by the painter Hans Georg Schüffner. The pulpit, in the same baroque idiom, is attributed to Isac (Isak) Schullström and is similarly richly decorated, with sources giving its date as either the mid-18th century or 1767.
The most celebrated fitting is the soapstone font, roughly 70 cm high and dated to around 1200, carved with flowing ornament by a Norwegian craftsman known as the Tunemästaren, or Tune Master. It is often described as one of Dalsland's finest and most accomplished medieval fonts. The church also holds a 14th-century stave-cross grave slab, said to be the only known example of its type in Dalsland.atic devices.
In the older part of the churchyard are gravel-covered graves and a scattering of wrought-iron grave crosses. Outside the churchyard proper, near the car park, a small memorial grove holds a stone to John Bryntesson (1871–1959), a wealthy local benefactor nicknamed "the gold king". Born in nearby Ormansbyn, he emigrated to America in 1886, returned to Sweden in 1906, and later acquired the Svaneholm ironworks in Svanskog, Värmland.
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Induction loop: The site has a hearing loop.
Ärtemarks pastorat
Ärtemarks pastorat
Ärtemarks kyrka stands on a cultivated headland jutting into the lake Ärtingen in Bengtsfors kommun, Västra Götaland. A little over a kilometre north lies a small former parish centre at a road junction, while the town of Bengtsfors itself grew up later nearby.
Karlsbergsvägen 17, 66631, Bengtsfors
Explore this church: Ärtemarks kyrkaChurch information: Svenska kyrkan, Platser · CC BY 4.0. Each church page includes its credits and visiting notes.
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Skogsrundan 1
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Törnrosgatan 22, 46462, Brålanda
View church details: Servicehuset PrästkragenTydje kapell, in Västra Götaland's Dalsland district, occupies a church site that is probably medieval in origin. Though no medieval church survives, the small mortuary chapel and its churchyard preserve the memory of a parish…
Åmåls församlingshem Karlstadsvägen 4
View church details: Tydje kapellSources, 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: 17 Jul 2025. This is not an independent verification date.
Source record: 48ddf485-e120-4406-b46a-2a9f3069a6f0
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.