Skoklosters Church, Skoklosters parish, Uppland 2005

The picture has been taken in connection with the cultural historical characterization of Skoklosters Church, Skoklosters parish, Uppland 2005. The Church of Skoklosters is a three-nave basilica constructed with brick walls. The church was erected in the second half of the 1200th century as a monastery church for a nuns monastery belonging to the Cistercian Order. It is one of the oldest brick churches in the melard valley in the Gothic style and is one of the group of monastic churches that appeared to be normative for the construction of parish churches in Uppland, in particular as regards the design of windows and portals and facade blinds. The monastery belonged to several buildings, some of which were preserved when the church was depicted by Peringskiöld in the 1690s. The church and the monastery were hit by fires in both the 1503 and the 1560s. The church of Skoklosters also served as a parish church in the 1300s, when the old church in Flasta was abandoned. The façades are of red brick except the south side ship, the façade of which is trimmed and decolorized in brick red, and painted with brick forming patterns. To the west, the church has two large prosperous arches that frame the richly profiled Gothic brick portal. The west gable is also fitted with blinders and a large window with two parallel openings and a round light drop. The east gable in the choir has a gothic three-window group as well as three pointed arched blinding niches in the gable voice. The gable is flanked by two bricks. The north side ship facade is also fitted with wooden frames crowned with a bare plate. The midship and side ship facades are crowned by profiled, trimmed cornices stripped in bright ochre. The sacristy is secondarily decorated in the easternmost part of the north side ship. In the south there is a peculiar burial choir built for the council and the field marshal Herman Wrangel and finished in 1639. Wrangel was the owner of Skoklosters farm. The tomb has pedestal and corner squares of sandstone and facades of brick. It is crowned by a copperplate clad hood with lanternin. The round-arched windows have lead-arched forging arches. The windows of the longhouse clerical aeration have metal arches. The side ship’s windows have a round-arched shape and sprinkled wooden arches painted in ochre yellow. The roof of the church is a saddle roof, covered with false copper sheet painted black. The west portal has a large wooden gate with richly designed panel from the 1600s. A gate is also present in the south side ship: a simple round arched opening with a wooden mirror door.