Botkyrka Church, Botkyrka, Sweden

According the legend the first wooden church of Botkyrka was completed in 1129 and it was built by Björn to his brother St. Bodvid. It was replaced by a Romanescue-style stone church in 1176. The present main nave originates from this church. The tower was added some decades later and the church was enlarged in the 14th and 15th centuries.

The altar was made in Antwerpen in 1525. The sandstone epitaph date from the 12th century. The crucifix from the 14th century is today moved to the National Historical Museum in Stockholm.

References:

Marianne Mehling et al. Knaurs Kulturführer in Farbe. Schweden. München 1987.

User Reviews

Edvinas Griauzdė (2 years ago)
One of the most amazing buildings

Solweig löwemo (2 years ago)
Hejsan vederbörande ansvarig för gudstjänsten idag 7/10 2018. Vi, dvs min man och jag brukar med glädje ta del av Gudstjänsterna på TV eftersom vi har svårt att komma till kyrkan. För det mesta mycket glädje och sång och predikningar med innehåll. I dag blev vi besvikna eftersom man dansade i kyrkan till vissa psalmer. Vi vill ge vår åsikt om detta och tycker det är tråkigt att man gör så för det tillför inte tittarna något, bara irritation och förvåning. En sak till varför gör man om melodierna till vissa sånger och psalmer, tycker det är så ledsamt och man frågar sig varför. Sångarna sjöng bra, Ni vill ju ha recensioner. Vänligen Solweig o Lennart Löwemo

Predrag Jovanovic (2 years ago)
Obavezno pogledati...

Eva Eriksson (2 years ago)
En vacker gammal kyrka.

Britt-Marie Lundqvist (2 years ago)
Vilken otrolig vaktmästare som mötte oss vid min mors urnsättning. Tyvärr kommer jag inte ihåg hans namn. Vilket mottagande, lugn och ro, det är det man behöver vid detta tillfälle. Var rädd om honom, det är verkligen rätt man på rätt plats!

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Photo from Flickr, copyright Dan Lundberg

Historic Site of the week

Hagios Demetrios

The Church of Saint Demetrius, or Hagios Demetrios, is the main sanctuary dedicated to Saint Demetrius, the patron saint of Thessaloniki. It is part of the site Palaeochristian and Byzantine Monuments of Thessaloniki on the list of World Heritage Sites by UNESCO since 1988.

The first church on the spot was constructed in the early 4th century AD, replacing a Roman bath. A century later, a prefect named Leontios replaced the small oratory with a larger, three-aisled basilica. Repeatedly gutted by fires, the church eventually was reconstructed as a five-aisled basilica in 629–634. This was the surviving form of the church much as it is today. The most important shrine in the city, it was probably larger than the local cathedral. The historic location of the latter is now unknown.

The church had an unusual shrine called the ciborium, a hexagonal, roofed structure at one side of the nave. It was made of or covered with silver. The structure had doors and inside was a couch or bed. Unusually, it did not hold any physical relics of the saint. The ciborium seems to have been a symbolic tomb. It was rebuilt at least once.

The basilica is famous for six extant mosaic panels, dated to the period between the latest reconstruction and the inauguration of the Byzantine Iconoclasm in 730. These mosaics depict St. Demetrius with officials responsible for the restoration of the church (called the founders, ktetors) and with children. An inscription below one of the images glorifies heaven for saving the people of Thessalonica from a pagan Slavic raid in 615.

Thessaloniki became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1430. About 60 years later, during the reign of Bayezid II, the church was converted into a mosque, known as the Kasımiye Camii after the local Ottoman mayor, Cezeri Kasım Pasha. The symbolic tomb however was kept open for Christian veneration. Other magnificent mosaics, recorded as covering the church interior, were lost either during the four centuries when it functioned as a mosque (1493–1912) or in the Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917 that destroyed much of the city. It also destroyed the roof and upper walls of the church. Black-and-white photographs and good watercolour versions give an idea of the early Byzantine craftsmanship lost during the fire.

Following the Great Fire of 1917, it took decades to restore the church. Tombstones from the city"s Jewish cemetery - destroyed by the Greek and Nazi German authorities - were used as building materials in these restoration efforts in the 1940s. Archeological excavations conducted in the 1930s and 1940s revealed interesting artifacts that may be seen in a museum situated inside the church"s crypt. The excavations also uncovered the ruins of a Roman bath, where St. Demetrius was said to have been held prisoner and executed. A Roman well was also discovered. Scholars believe this is where soldiers dropped the body of St. Demetrius after his execution. After restoration, the church was reconsecrated in 1949.

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