Mikaelikyrkan

Västerås grew rapidly during the first half of the twentieth century, and new districts such as Vetterstorp lay far from the old parish church at Lundby. A temporary church hall proved inadequate, so a foundation was set up to raise funds for a new building, and a cross was erected on the chosen site so that services could be held there even before construction began.

Architects Gösta Ekroth and Bertil Tideström were commissioned to design the church, though their first proposal, a modest square building for around 200 people, was substantially enlarged by the time building work began in 1965. The church was consecrated in March 1966 by Bishop Sven Silén. Its design is often cited as an example of 1960s modernism with brutalist influences, reportedly inspired partly by monastic architecture, combining an intimate scale with something of a cathedral-like presence.

The building's white walls of Danish limestone brick, lacking any visible base course, rise to a dramatic roofline that reaches its highest point, around 11 to 11.5 metres, at the eastern gable above the chancel. Large expanses of the façade are windowless, with a cross-shaped window set high in the gable and bigger windows to the south and rear. The 19-metre concrete bell tower, topped by an aluminium cross within three encircling rings said to symbolise the centre of the universe, has become the building's best-known feature.

Inside, the pale, unadorned limestone walls and bare concrete arches divide the church into three aisles, with the roof stepping down towards a raised chancel floored, like the rest of the church, in Höganäs ceramic tiles. A small Mary chapel for quiet devotion occupies part of the northern aisle. Fixed furnishings, including the marble altar, were designed by the church's architects.

Among the furnishings is a three-part altarpiece painted in 1975 by Helge Andersson, depicting angels announcing Christ's birth, the parable of the prodigal son, and the risen Christ. Two sculptures by Pellis Hellbom include a white concrete figure of Mary outside the church and a metal work inside symbolising Christ as the source from which the apostles spread the Gospel. An older painting of Christ in Gethsemane, from 1924, was brought over from the church's predecessor building. The three bells in the tower were cast in 1965 and carry inscriptions from a hymn by Nathan Söderblom.