Björklinge kyrka

The parish name, recorded as Birklinge in 1314, is thought to derive from an old Swedish word for a birch grove, and originally referred only to the rectory rather than the settlement as a whole.

The oldest fabric of the church is a grey-stone building probably begun in the early 1300s. Like other Uppland churches of the period, it was originally roofed with a wooden barrel vault, which local evidence suggests was later destroyed by fire. During the first half of the 1400s this was replaced by brick star vaults, and around the middle of that century the vaults were decorated with the medieval wall paintings that still survive, attributed to two distinct workshops, the Ärentuna and Tierp painters, whose differing styles remain visible today.

The church took on its present form in the later seventeenth century, when Agneta Horn of Sätuna commissioned mason Andreas Fischer to rebuild it in 1657. The old chancel was demolished, the building lengthened eastward, and a burial vault for the Sätuna family created beneath the new chancel. New doorways with sandstone surrounds by the sculptor Johan Köpke were added, and the distinctive corner turrets that now define the exterior were built at this time. Fine stained-glass windows were fitted in 1658, five of which survive; the others were replaced in 1960 with new work by the artist Syster Marianne depicting the medieval canonical hours.

Inside, visitors can see a sandstone font probably dating from the early 1400s and an oak altar cabinet, likely from Lars Germundsson's workshop in Enköping in the late 1400s, now displayed above the sacristy door. A carved rood screen and older pulpit were made in 1673 as a Christmas gift to the church from Gustav Kruus, partly in memory of Agneta Horn; the original pulpit was later discarded in 1847 and its whereabouts are now unknown. Numerous funeral hatchments and armorial panels, once carried in the processions of noble burials, still hang on the walls, a reminder that the church housed several aristocratic graves, including that of Count Otto Fleming, whose large marble tomb stands in the chancel.

The church's older organ case, built in 1740 by Olof Hedlund, was restored in 2001–2002 and is considered a rarity among Swedish instruments of its type. A separate bronze statue near the churchyard, made by the sculptor Bror Hjorth, commemorates the fiddler known as Gås-Anders and was unveiled in 1944; Hjorth and his family are buried in the churchyard.