Persnäs Church
Church environment
Persnäs parish is situated on the northern Öland between the parishes Föra and Källa. The Church Village is located a few kilometers east of the road 136th
The church is surrounded by farmland but the parish’s most important industry has long been quarrying. West and south of the church are the remains of old quarries.
The Stonemason traditions are also evident by the many barns of limestone and remains of “skurkvarnar” (a wind-driven scouring machine). Today is quarrying performed in the parish western parts.
The Church
A nave and a narrow chancel in stone were probably built in the first half of the 12th century. The west and east towers were probably built shortly after each other during the late 12th or early 13th century.
The church transept was built in the mid 13th century, the church porch in the south and storage facilities in the north probably shortly thereafter.
During the late Middle Age there were several changes in the church interior. The sacristy was added in 1650-62 in the angle between the east tower and the transept to the north.
Throughout the 17th and the 18th century the parish had very high costs of maintenance of the church. They also made some costly changes to the interior, an organ was installed and a gallery was built in1756-59.
In the mid 19th century the church was considered to old so a collection of money started for building of a new church. The old church had also become crowded when the population of the parish grew during the 19th century.
Drawings were made and sent to the “överintendentsämbetet” (today The National Property Board of Sweden). The parish request for a new church was handled by architect CG Blom Carlsson, who instead advocated for a reconstruction of the old church and drew up a new proposal.
According to the new proposal the transepts should be expanded instead. The work on the new transepts began in 1856. The following year, when the demolishing of the old transepts had begun, the eastern tower collapsed. To re-erect the tower would be too costly so instead the parish got permission to build a new chancel to the east.
Originally, the sacristy was located in the eastern transept behind the altar, but in 1959 it was moved to the north transept.
Memorial grove
At Persnäs cemetery there is no memorial grove.
Buildings
In flight with the churchyard wall in the west lies the morgue. When the building was originally built is not known. Until 1966 when the building was renovated it was used as a storeroom and a provisional morgue.
At the renovation a room for mortuary removal was prepared and better storage facilities. Even today, it is used as storage but also as a morgue. The facade is smooth plastered in white, the roof is tiled and joinery painted black.
Outside the cemetery’s northwest corner is a newly built janitorial house with garages. The building has standing gray-painted wood paneling, white joinery and black metal roofs.
Other
Up until 1848 there were several old grave slabs in the cemetery. Many of them were used to the new church floor 1857.
One of the most renowned is Sigmund from Horns grave slab from 1341. Another renowned grave slab is “Digerflisan” (the Black Death slab) now located as stair stone at the church’s southern entrance. According to the legend, there were not more survivors after the Black Death in the 14th century in Persnäs parish than that could stand together on “Digerflisan”.
South of the morgue are several older tombstones arranged along the entire southern part of the cemetery wall. There are among other several old limestone crosses and some cast iron crosses
Source: Kalmar Läns Museum (Kalmar County Museum)
Translation: Visitoland.com