Katrine kapell was a medieval church on the south-eastern part of Kållandsö, near the entrance to Ullersund in what is now Otterstad parish. Today nothing remains above ground but the outline of a lost site, once part of an old settlement at Sunnerby.
The site lies at Sunnerby, one of the most significant settlements on Kållandsö during the Viking Age and early medieval period, with traces of grave fields and an Iron Age longhouse nearby. Around the year 1000 the settlement moved to higher ground, and it was on this slope, just north of Storegården, that the church was later built. It is thought the building was originally known as Sunnerby church, and may only later have acquired the name Sankta Katrine, or Katrine kapell.
The church was probably built towards the end of the twelfth century as a rectangular nave with a narrower, straight-ended chancel, its walls constructed from dressed sandstone. An entrance on the south side was later bricked up and replaced by a west doorway, coinciding with the addition of a timber tower. Historians believe the church may have fallen into disuse as early as the medieval period, possibly linked to the Black Death.
In 1668 the nobleman Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie, who held the surrounding estate, had the ruined church restored and established a hospital and school beside it, similar to one he had founded in Lidköping. The estate of Storegården was assigned to support the institution, and the tower underwent repairs as late as 1684. This revival proved short-lived: in 1689 the hospital and its funding were transferred to Skara by royal order, and the church was left to decay once again.
By the 1690s reports described serious rot damage to the roof and tower, and no repairs followed. When the parish church at Sunnersberg needed enlarging in 1707–09, permission was sought to use Katrine kapell as a source of building material, including its pulpit and altarpiece; the older structure was consequently dismantled.
Descriptions from 1871 and 1913 recorded only fragmentary foundation stones and a solitary stone grave-cross marking the former churchyard, by then used as a kitchen garden. Archaeological investigations between 2004 and 2007 uncovered the nave's foundations, along with cultural layers containing pottery, animal bone and post-holes dating from the tenth and eleventh centuries, though little survived of the chancel walls.
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Sunnersbergs församling
Sunnersbergs församling
Katrine kapell was a medieval church on the south-eastern part of Kållandsö, near the entrance to Ullersund in what is now Otterstad parish. Today nothing remains above ground but the outline of a lost site, once part of an old settlement at Sunnerby.
Gamla Läckövägen 43, 53155, Lidköping
Explore this church: Katrine kapellChurch information: Svenska kyrkan, Platser · CC BY 4.0. Each church page includes its credits and visiting notes.
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View church details: Ekby kyrkaSources, 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: 19 Aug 2024. This is not an independent verification date.
Source record: b24afd64-388c-40a6-95d1-99dfebb8d957
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.