Fem ödekyrkor i Norrland kyrklig förnyelse, kulturminnesvård och kyrkorestaureringar vid 1900-talets början

Sammanfattning: The new church of Ytterlännäs, a large Neo-Classical sermon church, was consecrated in 1854. The old, medieval church was far too small to house the growing number of visitors. It was therefore abandoned, but managed to be spared from demolition. A couple of decades into the twentieth century did the church once again become the object of the congregation's maintenance. It was restored and has been used for services since 1939.These abandoned churches are the subject of the present dissertation. The main aim of this thesis is answering such questions as: Why where the ancient churches abandoned? Why where they later restored and which individuals or groups advocated restoration? How where the projects realized? What guiding principles informed their work and how was the practical matter of restoration done? What values did the people involved see in the restored objects?The chapter Old and New Churches is a general introduction to the subject and certain aspects of the Neo-Classical churches are treated. The chapter entitled The Congregation and the Abandoned Churches deals with the situation from the perspective of the Swedish Lutheran Church, where the Young Church movement embraced a faith in the church as a force capable of cultural renewal, which resulted in a wider interest in preservation and restoration of the old churches. The chapter The Ideology of Restoration deals with how modern ideas about restoration were mediated from Europe to Sweden. Sigurd Curman presented the new antiquarian doctrine of restoration in two articles from 1905 and 1906. The chapter The Preservation of Cultural Monuments and the Abandoned Churches shows that the restorations was made possible by the fact that the responsible authorities possessed better tools for the successful completion of their task by this time.In the chapter Erik Salvén and the Abandoned Churches the man is introduced, that meant the most for the restoration of the churches which this thesis deals with. These are the subjects of the following five chapters: Trönö in Hälsingland, Alnö in Medelpad, Ragunda and Oviken in Jämtland and Ytterlännäs in Ångermanland. The results of this thesis are discussed and summarized in the last chapter, Interpreting the History of a Church.