Habo kyrka

A church at Habo is first mentioned in the late thirteenth century, and the oldest surviving part of the present building is a stone sacristy from an earlier structure. The timber church was enlarged several times, including the addition of cross-arms in the early seventeenth century and a widening of the nave in 1680. A major rebuilding in 1723, overseen by master builder Sven Nilsson Swan, gave the church its current form, adding the tower and the three-sided chancel.

Built from squared logs, the church takes the shape of a basilica, with a tall central nave and lower side aisles, which gives it the cathedral-like character reflected in its nickname. Galleries run around all four walls, a survival of the old social order in which the gentry, farmers, and servants and farmhands each had their own designated seating areas.

Between 1741 and 1743 two painters from Jönköping, Johan Kinnerus and Johan Christian Peterson, covered the walls, gallery fronts and ceiling with paintings illustrating Luther's catechism, an unusual and comprehensive decorative scheme said to have supported religious teaching. The Ten Commandments appear on the side walls, the Creed on the ceiling beneath the galleries, and the Lord's Prayer on the walls above them, while large scenes higher up depict baptism, confession and absolution, communion and blessing. On the organ gallery, figures of women thought to possibly represent Queen Ulrika Eleonora sit oddly apart from the rest of the scheme.

The sandstone altar dates from the fourteenth century, while the altarpiece, carved in 1723 by Jonas Ullberg, shows the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Christ, with the risen Christ and a victory banner at its summit, flanked by figures of Moses and Aaron. A small mechanical figure above a clock set into the altarpiece is said to strike the hour on two hemispheres with hammers. The sandstone font, the oldest object in the church, dates from the mid-thirteenth century.

The organ case on the west gallery originates from an eight-stop instrument built in 1736 by Johan Niclas Cahman and decorated by the Habo woodcarver Magnus Ullberg Johansson; the organ itself has since been replaced. Habo kyrka was also depicted on a Swedish Christmas stamp issued in 2002 in a series devoted to romantic churches.