Lidens gamla kyrka

Building of the church began in 1483, traditionally under the direction of Father Josephus, a Dominican friar and priest at Indal who is said to have initiated several churches in the surrounding area. According to the recorded parish tradition, Josephus drowned crossing the Indalsälven the same year the church was completed, around 1510, and is said to be buried by Indal church. The building is constructed of granite rubble with brick around doors and windows, and originally had brick star vaults; a porch and sacristy were added shortly after the main structure was finished.

An earlier timber church is thought to have stood on the site, suggested partly by a surviving crucifix dated to the 1200s. In 1561 the interior was decorated with paintings, later whitewashed over in the mid-1700s. When a new parish church was built at Liden in the 1850s, the old church was deliberately part-demolished: its brick vaults were broken up, windows and doors removed, and furnishings thrown out into the churchyard, leaving the building roofless and exposed for around fifty years.

Restoration took place between 1911 and 1928, largely on the initiative of the vicar Lars Hoflin. The old wall paintings were uncovered, a new shingled roof added, and, since the brick vaults could not be afforded, the present timber barrel vault was installed instead. The church was reconsecrated in 1928.

Surviving furnishings include a triumphal crucifix thought to date from the 1200s, a late-medieval Madonna and Child altar cabinet said to have been made in Lübeck, and a Rococo-style pulpit and altarpiece attributed to the sculptor Jonas Granberg, dated by one source to 1755. An old ring-shaped door handle with a dragon's-head design, of a medieval type, remains on the church door. Little survives of the original churchyard wall beyond a timbered lychgate, and only two grave crosses remain in the old churchyard; a memorial stone nearby recalls Magnus Huss, associated with the historic Ragunda flood disaster.

The church has been affected by thefts of medieval objects, notably around 1994 and again in 2005, when a deposited medieval Madonna figure and other items were stolen; the stolen pieces were reportedly later recovered, in one case traced to Spain, and some have since been restored and returned, though not all objects are held at the church today. The bell tower dates from 1958 and stands on the site of earlier towers; sources differ slightly on the age and origin of the bell itself. Intended at one stage to become a museum church, it instead continued as an active parish church, used for summer services and valued as a place for visitors, pilgrims and celebrations.