Mikaelikyrkan

The decision to build a new church in Arvika parish was recorded in 1642, during the incumbency of vicar Petrus Eici Uranius, who oversaw the laying of the foundations around 1647 but died in 1653, some years before completion. He is said to be buried beneath the larger of two grave slabs still inside the church. Building work dragged on for decades, and the stone church was not finished until the 1680s, when a timber bell tower was also raised; the present stone tower, joined to the church, was not added until 1799.

Before the stone church, a timber church stood on or near the site, traditionally said to have been dedicated to St Michael and possibly moved here from the nearby farm of Dottevik. Its exact location and age are uncertain, though oral tradition and surviving medieval objects suggest a church existed in Arvika as early as the 13th century. A medieval soapstone font linked to this earlier building is now held at the Historical Museum in Stockholm rather than in the church itself.

The church's current form dates largely from a substantial rebuilding in the 1780s, carried out partly to designs associated with C. F. Adelcrantz, then the crown's superintendent of buildings. This work gave the church its three-sided chancel to the east, a new west tower and a sacristy to the north. Since then, the exterior has changed little, and the building is regarded as a good example of church architecture from the Gustavian period, with whitewashed walls and arched window openings both inside and out.

Inside, the richly carved altarpiece and pulpit, both dating from the mid-18th century, are attributed to Isac Schullström, a sculptor much employed in Värmland at the time. Ahead of the church's 300th anniversary in 1947, a major restoration stripped away a later coat of white and gold paint from these furnishings, revealing the original polychrome decoration beneath. The present benches also date from this 1947 restoration, and a font by Bror Sahlström and Ola Eriksson was installed earlier, in 1904.

Outside the church stands a statue named Ödmjukhet (Humility) by the sculptor Christian Eriksson, who is buried directly in front of it. The churchyard, enclosed by a dry-stone wall, also contains a gravekapell (funerary chapel) from 1923, along with a parish storehouse and parish cottage.