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.
Archaeologists have uncovered the ruins of one of Sweden’s oldest churches in excavations on the height behind the monastery ruins in Varnhem.
The burial ground around the site contains several thousand graves. People began to bury their dead according to Christian tradition here as early as the 900s, which is a sensationally early dating. These exciting finds mean that the history of the province of Västergötland has had to be partially rewritten. The Christianisation of this area occurred several generations before the baptism of King Olof Skötkonung in Husaby, which was said to have taken place at the beginning of the 11th century. The church was built during the Viking Age as a proprietary church on the large Varnhem estate, and has a crypt which is possibly Sweden’s oldest surviving room.
The Varnhem estate was donated to the monks in the middle of the 12th century, which was when Varnhem Monastery was built. The archaeological finds tell us about the place in times before the monks came, during the Viking Age and even further back, in the Iron Age. The clues in the ground, the church ruins and the graves bear witness to a powerful and important family with contacts all over Europe. Thanks to a gravestone carrying a runic inscription we know the names of some of these people – Kata, her husband Kättil, and her brother Torgils.
The doors to Kata’s church, which now has a protective roof, opened in May 2017. The church contains an exhibition, “Christian Vikings in Varnhem”, about Västergötland in the Viking Age, Kata’s large estate and the people who lived here a thousand years ago. The area surrounding the church ruins is little short of magical. It contains Billingen mountain, with pilgrim trails stretching in several directions, the beautiful vale of Valle with all its lakes and walking trails, and bird-rich Lake Hornborga with exhibitions, boardwalks and hiding places, all just a stone’s throw from Varnhem Abbey.
The County Administrative Board in Västra Götaland, which has responsibility for the long-term exposure of the ruin, has seen to it that the stone foundations of the church with its burial sites are protected from wind and weather. This has been done via a wooden superstructure that covers the foundations, but also creates a room to be in for experiences and re-enactment of accounts about the place and its history.