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Södra Råda Old Church was an early 14th century timbered church in the parish of Södra Råda in southern Värmland in Sweden. Long considered one of the finest and best-preserved examples of a medieval wooden church with its original wall-paintings preserved, it fell victim to an act of arson in 2001. A Swedish specialist on medieval painting has called it "one of the greatest losses to art history in recent times".

History
Built in the early 14th century, the timbered church replaced a stave church that had been in place since the middle or second half of the 12th century. This was discovered through the excavations after the fire and explains how some inventories are earlier than the church itself. A bell from the church, dated to the 13th century, was bought by the state in 1912 and is kept in the Museum of Antiquities in Stockholm.

The 14th century church functioned as the parish church of Södra Råda until the 19th century, when it was deemed too small for the growing population of the parish. A new church of brick was constructed and consecrated in 1859. The parish had originally intended to demolish the old church but the antiquarian and artist Nils Månsson Mandelgren, who came to the parish in 1849, intervened and pleaded for the church, and once the new church had been completed, the parish sold the old one to the Swedish state. Mandelgren also assembled the first documentation of the church, in the form of drawings published in Paris in 1862 in the sixth and last volume of his Monuments Scandinaves du moyen-âge.

Many of the early wooden churches of Sweden had been demolished already in the Middle Ages to give way to churches of stone or brick, and many more were demolished during later centuries. Thanks to Mandelgren, the old church of Södra Råda survived for another century and a half. It continued to be studied and documented by art historians and antiquarians until its destruction through arson on the night following 11 November 2001. Two years later, in 2003, a mentally-ill man convicted for the murder of a five-year old girl outside a kindergarten also confessed to and was convicted for the burning of the church. Since its destruction a project led by the Swedish National Board of Antiquities conducted excavations of the church site for three seasons. A project is under way to build a replica of the church, as far as possible using the original methods of construction.

Architecture
The felling of the timber of the building has been dated through dendro-chronological analysis of logs remaining after the fire to the years 1302-1309, a dating confirmed by an inscription dating the paintings in the chancel to 1323 (see below). The excavation after the destruction of the church has shown that the timbered church appears to have been preceded by a stave church built during the middle or late 12th century.

The church had a nave with a rectangular plan with a somewhat more narrow section containing the chancel with a narrow vestry on the side. Trefoil-section barrel-vaulted ceilings had existed in other churches in Sweden - a trefoil-shaped vaulted ceiling has been reconstructed in the Museum of Antiquities in Stockholm from fragmentary materials found in a church in Uppland - but the one in Södra Råda was until its destruction the only one preserved in situ.

Paintings
The artist behind the earliest paintings remains anonymous to us, but an inscription dates both them and the consecration of the church to 1323: "In the year of the Lord 1323, when Bishop Peter reigned, this was painted about the blessed Virgin Mary". Later paintings in the chancel were signed by a painter named Amund and dated 1494.

The paintings in the chancel from 1323
The vault of the chancel had two rows of Old Testament prophets on the sides of the middle section of the trefoil, with New Testament apostles in the two outer sections. Each prophet or apostle was placed in one section of an arcade. To mark their relative outdatedness from the point of view of Christian theology in contemporary terms, the prophets were placed in arcades with rounded Romanesque-style arches, while the apostles were placed in arcades in the fashionable French High Gothic style with pointed arches and ornamental gables topped by finials. The same Christian view is reflected in the prophets holding scrolls, and the apostles codices.

A lack in real biblical learning on behalf of the painter has been inferred from the inclusion among the prophets of an "Ester profeta" (with a long beard) and a "Ienecis profeta" ("Prophet Genesis"). The art historian Mereth Lindgren defends the painter by pointing out that all the books of the Old Testament were viewed as foreshadowing the New, and the man in the beard may actually refer to the author of the book of Esther.

The central image on the eastern wall was the common "throne of mercy" (Gnadenstuhl) trinity motif with God the Father holding the cross with the crucified Christ and the Holy Spirit hovering above in the shape of a dove. On each side were placed the Virgin Mary and John the Apostle, an unusual arrangement more reminiscent of Final judgment paintings. The northern wall of the chancel and the lower part of the northern side of the eastern wall depicted the death of Mary and her assumption into Heaven. The southern side of the chancel depicted the martyrship of Peter, Paul, Andrew, Bartholomew, Sebastian, Hippolytus, Lawrence, Clement and Dionysius. The depiction appears to have followed the Legenda Aurea.

Amund's paintings in the nave from 1494
The nave of the church remained undecorated until the end of the 15th century, when it was painted by Amund, who is only known by name through the signature he left in Södra Råda; several other, unsigned, wall-paintings in churches in the same region have also been attributed to Amund on stylistic grounds. The ceiling was decorated with a number of medallions retelling biblical stories and legends: creation, the childhoods of Mary and Jesus, the Parable of the Prodigal Son, the legend of Saint Eustace, and a number of images of fable creatures. The eastern and southern walls depicted the passion of Christ, the northern wall the creed of the apostles, and the western wall virtues and sins. The eastern wall showed the final judgment above the opening towards the chancel. The triumphal crucifix or rood, dating from the consecration of the church about 1310, had been placed on the southern side of the entry to the chancel, probably placed there by Amund at the time he painted the part of the wall where it was originally located. Amund also added a Mary and John on each side of the crucifix, painted on thin, paper doll-like wooden boards.

Graves
The old church was surrounded by a cemetery dating back to the period of the preceding stave church. The archaeologists did not investigate the whole cemetery, only those graves under or in the immediate vicinity of the church. The graves within the church perimeter included two right in front of the chancel that were dated to shortly after the construction of the timber church and interpreted by the archaeologists as possible patronus graves. A grave chamber dug out under the chancel in the 17th century may, judging from the more elaborate coffins (most burials took place in simpler coffins or just shrouds), have contained graves of people with higher status, but it was not given any structural support other than what the coffins themselves provided. Once the coffins had started to collapse from rot in the moist ground, the floor started to sag, as later depictions show.

Publications and reports

 * Lagerlöf, Erland: Medeltida träkyrkor II: Västergötland, Värmland, Närke (Sveriges Kyrkor vol. 199). Stockholm: Riksantikvarieämbetet, 1985.
 * Lindgren, Mereth, "Kalkmålningarna", Signums svenska konsthistoria: Den gotiska konsten, 309-411
 * Nilsén, Anna (2002) Södra Råda Church in Sweden: A Lost National Treasure, Konsthistorisk tidskrift, 71:3, 153 - 171
 * Nisbeth, Åke: Bildernas predikan. Medeltida kalkmålningar i Sverige. Stockholm: Gidlund; Kungl. Vitterhets-, historie- och antikvitetsakadamien; Riksantikvarieämbetet, 1986.
 * Ullén, Marian, "Gotikens kyrkobyggande", Signums svenska konsthistoria: Den gotiska konsten, 37-133.
 * Wallebom, Ulrika & Edlund, Martin: Södra Råda gamla kyrkplats år 2004,

Swedish National Museum of Antiquities catalogue entries

 * SHM 20159, catalogue entry for the ceiling from Ärentuna
 * SHM 14691, church bell from Södra Råda, 13th century

http://www.sodrarada.se/Rapporter/arkeologi-rapport2004.pdf http://hildebrand.raa.se/uv/projekt/bergslagen/sodrarada/pdf/kommunikationsrapport2004_5_72.pdf taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/index/54GQQGE2DDMPKDP6.pdf

Links

 * Södra Råda, Riksantikvarieämbetet
 * http://hildebrand.raa.se/uv/projekt/bergslagen/sodrarada/index.htm
 * http://hildebrand.raa.se/uv/projekt/bergslagen/sodrarada/dagbok2003/english.htm
 * http://hildebrand.raa.se/uv/projekt/bergslagen/sodrarada/press.htm (includes press images)
 * http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=147&a=205488 and
 * http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=147&a=198810 (newspaper coverage in Dagens Nyheter of the trial against the murderer/arsonist)