Kumla kyrka

A church is believed to have stood here since the 1100s, beginning as a small Romanesque stone building that was extended in stages through the Middle Ages. That medieval church's foundations are still marked out in darker limestone sections of the present church floor, and it was once accompanied by a fortified stone bell-tower, or kastal, used for defence.

The medieval church was demolished in 1828 to make way for a new building in the neoclassical style, designed by architect Per Axel Nyström and regarded as one of his finest works. Construction ran from 1829, with the church brought into use at Christmas 1834 and formally consecrated in September 1835. It was restored in the early 1900s, gaining a new organ, pews, windows and heating.

Disaster struck in 1968, when an arson attack left only the outer walls standing. The church was rebuilt between 1971 and 1972 under architect Jerk Alton, who recreated the exterior much as it had been while giving the interior an entirely new character, reopening on the first Sunday of Advent. The tower now houses a small museum in two rooms, one devoted to items from the medieval church and the other to objects from the nineteenth-century building lost to fire.

The rebuilt interior is notable for its fresco-style wall paintings by Pär Andersson, depicting a landscape drawing on the biblical gardens of Gethsemane and Eden. Sculptor Birger Boman contributed a crucifix and a dove above the pulpit symbolising the Holy Spirit, while a separate triumphal crucifix by Harry Svensson depicts the risen Christ. Other furnishings include a limestone font by Roland Eckerwall with gilded ironwork depicting biblical scenes, and an altar carpet woven by Gunnar and Britta Haking representing flowing water.

Just southeast of the church, in a small hollow known as Franzén's grotto, a memorial stone erected in 1946 commemorates the hymn-writer Frans Michael Franzén, incumbent at Kumla in the early nineteenth century (sources differ on the exact years). He is said to have composed many of his hymns at this spot and was a determined opponent of the demolition of the old medieval church; he later became bishop of Härnösand.

The church's earlier organs were repeatedly rebuilt and eventually destroyed in the 1968 fire; the current organs, including a 1975 instrument by Paul Ott of Göttingen, were installed during the post-fire rebuilding.