Falu Kristine kyrka

Construction began in 1642 under the master mason Hans Ferster, who is thought to have provided most of the original designs, and continued after his death under Göran Fischer, who designed the tower. The church was consecrated on Advent Sunday 1655, though building work was still far from finished; the vaults and roof followed during the 1650s, and the tower was completed only around 1660. Fire destroyed the original spire in 1711, and after decades with a plain wooden covering, the present spire was raised in 1864–65 to a design based on an older depiction of the church by Erik Dahlbergh.

The interior owes much of its current appearance to a thorough restoration in 1903–06 led by the architect Carl Möller, working with Agi Lindegren, which reshaped the floors, windows and much of the decorative scheme. A further restoration in 1965–66, overseen by Erik Lundberg and Erik Lundgren, refreshed the interior again. The nave is covered by eighteen star vaults with varying rib patterns, most elaborate towards the east end, and the limestone pillars were carved by the master stonemason Simon Hack of Boda.//The chancel windows include typological biblical scenes, made in Munich in 1905 after designs by Möller, while the rose windows above the entrances show the pelican and the phoenix, both symbols of sacrifice and renewal.

Among the furnishings, the pulpit and altarpiece were carved between 1655 and 1669 by the German-born sculptor Ewerdt Friis with the joiner Jöns Gustafsson, and both were repainted and partly reworked in 1740 and again in 1905, when the pulpit's original supporting angel figure was replaced by a carved bunch of grapes. The altarpiece, a gift from a local councillor and his wife, carries five oil paintings by an unidentified North German school depicting scenes from the life of Christ. The high altar of green Kolmårdsmarmor and the font were both designed by Carl Möller and made in 1906, while a mobile central altar and lectern were added in 1998 to a design by Ove Hidemark, allowing more flexible use of the space.

The church bell has its own story: taken down in 1882 for recasting in Sundsvall, it slipped from its improvised soaped rails during removal and fell upside down to the ground undamaged. Music lovers may also be interested in the two organs: a well-preserved 1905–06 gallery organ by E. A. Setterquist & Son, with a façade modelled on a Baroque organ case in Kristianstad, and a chancel organ of 1982 that incorporates around 300 pipes surviving from an earlier 1724 instrument by Johan Niclas Cahman, built as an attempt to recreate something of its historic sound.