Forsbacka kyrka

Forsbacka grew as an ironworks community from the 17th and 18th centuries, and for a long time its people had to travel some distance to reach Valbo church. From 1840 the settlement had its own place of worship, improvised in a whitewashed neoclassical orangery belonging to Forsbacka manor house, built around 1800. This was always regarded as a temporary solution, though it served the congregation for well over a century; notably, the father of film director Ingmar Bergman is said to have served as a clergyman there for a few years. Plans for a proper church building were discussed as early as the 19th century but were not realised until the 1960s.

The last service in the old orangery was held on Whit Sunday 1965, and the new church, designed by architect Jörgen Fåk in a functionalist style, was consecrated the very next day, on Whit Monday, by the then Archbishop Gunnar Hultgren. Its striking octagonal plan is said to evoke the shape of a boat, and the exterior is faced in red brick with narrow, full-height strips of concrete glass letting in daylight. The hipped roofs are clad in copper, while inside, whitewashed walls and a pine-panelled ceiling are supported by white cross-shaped vault ribs. A separate bell tower, also designed by Fåk, stands nearby.

The altar is built from slag stone from the Forsbacka ironworks, topped with an altarpiece carved between 1963 and 1965 by artist Harry W Svensson of Mariestad, designed to complement the church's rustic pulpit. That pulpit, dating from 1731, was originally made for Hallaryd church and was later purchased and donated to Forsbacka; some paintings and wooden sculptures in the church also come from Hallaryd.

Unusually, the church has two font basins. One, designed by architect Jörgen Fåk, combines glass and cast iron, with a base cast at the Forsbacka works in 1965 and an inner bowl decorated with a mosaic of slag-stone fragments made by local resident Brita Lindberg. The other, an earlier work from 1953 by wood sculptor Johnny Mattsson of Gävle, depicts a Madonna with open arms. The gallery organ was built by the Grönlund organ workshop.

Visitors should note that Forsbacka kyrka is not to be confused with the separate Forsbacka kapell, a chapel built in 1918–1919 near the village cemetery to designs by architects Lewerentz and Stubelius.