Sunday 13 March 2011

Medieval furniture in Gammla Uppsala church

Today I was looking through my book of old furniture projects and came across a set of postcards from my holiday in Sweden in 2007. We stayed in Uppsala for a week and visited the old parish church of Gammla Uppsala. The small church actually consists of the remains of the bishopric cathedral, which was destroyed by fire in 1240 (the bishopric seat moved to the new Uppsala). Inside the church are two medieval chests and a medieval turned seat. I tried to make clear to the verger, who did not speak English, that I wanted to take photos. In the end, he understood and agreed. The results are shared in this post.


  Gammla Uppsala parish church / old cathedral.


Iron bound dugout chest, 12th century, in use as an alms chest.


Turned bishopric throne, 12th century (postcard).


The small turned vertical rails are in two different colours.

14th century carved chest (postcard).


The same chest. One of the foot rails is missing. 

You can see the place where the original lock plate used to be. The current hinge is not the original.

  The side of the medieval chest.

A look at the backside of the chest.



The lid of the 14th century chest with modern church paraphernalia. 
The hinge extends to the back of the chest.

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