Särkilax Chapel

Norrbotten · Sverige · Ruin

The ice break-up tore the whole church loose and carried it away — and, tradition says, ripped open the graveyard, so that coffins and bones floated in the water.

Here stood Sweden's northernmost medieval church, built in the fifteenth century and raised so close to the bank of the Torne river that the congregation could row right up to it. As early as 1606 the king's commissioner warned that the church stood far too low and had begun to rot. Little more than a decade later came the disaster: the spring flood and the ice break-up tore the entire building loose and carried it away in one piece, until the ice crushed it some way downstream. According to tradition the graveyard was ripped open too, and coffins and bones floated in the water where the ice had passed. Fifteen medieval images, among them the shrine Madonna, were later recovered when the meadows dried out and stand today in Övertorneå church. The church bell sank and was never found; forty years afterwards the parishioners still testified that it was gone. The site is marked with a large wooden cross.

FAQ

Hvor ligger Särkilax Chapel?

Särkilax Chapel ligger i Norrbotten, Sverige.