In between Skara and Skövde you find Varnhem which is a popular destination. The location is part of an ancient cultural area that has been cultivated and inhabited for thousands of years. In the scenic environment around the church and monastery ruins, you can take advantage of a great story. The surrounding area a fairytale meadow flora thrives, and in the garden next to the church, you can find medicinal plants from the medieval times. Close to the monestary church, archeologists have found the ruins from one of Sweden’s oldest churches – built already during the Viking era! The exciting findings that have been made have led to the history of Västergötland being partially rewritten.
In 1150, Cistercian monks settled in Varnhem, on the western slope of Billingen mountain. The location is ideal, with fertile arable land and access to timber, rock and fresh water from the mountain. The brothers built a small monastic town and excavations have revealed an advanced water and sewer system that probably included channels for heating and ventilation.
At the end of the 1200s the abbey in Varnhem was the largest sacred building in Sweden. Activities flourished for several centuries. In connection with the Reformation in the 16th century, monastic activities ceased, and the church was left to its fate. Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie had the church restored in the 17th century and it is thanks to him the building is in good shape today. However, the monastery buildings were left to crumble until excavations began in the 1920s. Monastic life is well documented and the museum next to the church holds a model of the central monastery complex and interesting pictures and texts.
Beautiful Varnhem Church is the burial church for the royal House of Erik (12th-13th centuries). Stockholm´s founder, regent Birger jarl lies here, as do the church´s "saviour", Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie and his wife, the Princess Maria Eufrosyne.
Varnhem is the place where Jan Guillou’s fictional character, the Knight Templar Arn Magnusson, was born and brought up. When still a child, he was placed in a monastery as an oblate, in the service of God. This was a sacrifice by his parents Sigrid and Magnus, and in gratitude to the Lord who had miraculously brought about Arn’s recovery after a fall from a watchtower. The brothers in the monastery gave Arn skills in languages, philosophy and theology, as well as practical skills in blacksmithing, medical care, cultivation and building techniques.
Varnhem Monastery Museum is an exciting little museum on a height behind the abbey. There you can learn more about the monastery and what life could be like for a monk in the Middle Ages. There are among other things finds from the excavations that have been carried out – vaults and mediaeval leaden water conduits from the monastery. Interpretive boards, picture screens and a "speaker array" tell of the monastery and the excavations. The museum has the same opening hours as the church.
With the archaeological excavations carried out by Västergötland Museum in 2005-08 up on the hill and in the park by the monastery ruins, sensational results have been unearthed. For further information we refer you to Kata gård.