Bokenäs Old Church

Bohuslän · Sweden · Church

The church was placed deliberately on top of the heathen cult site — and the cup marks, hollows cut for offerings, are still there just outside the wall.

Bokenäs old church was not raised on virgin ground. Just outside the churchyard wall are cup marks, hollows cut for offerings long before Christianity, and the church was placed deliberately on top of the old cult site — a takeover in stone you can still put your hand on. The building is one of the oldest in Bohuslän, probably raised before the year 1100. Its patron became St Nicholas, later joined by an altar to St Botulf, and when Dragsmark abbey was founded in the thirteenth century Bokenäs came under the monks' control. The parish moved to a new church and the old one was left to decay; by the early twentieth century both roof and timber tower were badly damaged. In the churchyard lies the grave of an unknown soldier — a British sailor who died at the Battle of Jutland in 1916 and drifted ashore on the Bohuslän coast.

FAQ

Where is Bokenäs Old Church located?

Bokenäs Old Church is in Bohuslän, Sweden.