Uppsala; Sunday, 11 October, 2020

Another healthy lie-in and late breakfast and then it was time to head out of town for the afternoon. My destination, Sigtuna, had at one point in it’s past been the most important town in Sweden, site or the royal mint and home to several churches at a time when Christianity was only just becoming established in Sweden. Today it’s a small little village on the banks of Lake Mälaren, albeit with a large number of ruined churches and lots of rune stone.

To get there I first had to take the local train one stop down the line to the town of Knivsta, where I then had to change onto the local bus over to Sigtuna. For a journey of less than 20Km it took nearly an hour to get there thanks to the indirect routing.

The bus stops right by the historic centre of the village, where there are several merchants houses and probably the smallest town hall in Scandinavia (though it hasn’t technically been used for council business since the late 1940s). I had a long wander through the old town and then down to the side of Lake Mälaren to take in the stunning views across the lake. Despite it being only 10C out of the wind in the direct sun it was surprisingly warm.

I wandered for a whilst along the edge of the lake, before turning back inland and heading up to the towns museum. The museum is housed in an historic building, with a modern extension and charts the history of Sigtuna from key Viking town to it’s role today as a dormitory town for the nearby Arlanda airport.

After looking round the museum I continues my explore round the town by taking in the various ruined churches that dot the landscape, starting at St Pers up on a hill overlooking the village. This church is still pretty well formed with the general shape being obvious, just large chunks of the side walls missing.

Next up was a quick detour up the hill to visit the belfry. This large wooden structure is placed on a high hill overlooking the town and the lake, and from it there are good views over the lake. The belfry has been in this spot since the 17th century, though the original was completely destroyed by fire in 2016 and the one that’s here today is a reconstruction that was opened in 2018.

From the belfry I continued back down into town stopping at the small remnants of St Lars church, which is really just one corner of the church tower that remains, though surrounding the site are a couple of Rune stones.

The final ruin of the day – Sankt Olofs Kyrkoruin – is the most complete of the ruins. Mostly it’s just the roofs that are missing, with much of the rest of the church still in situ – to the point that it can still be used as a chapel for special events. I spent quite a bit of time wandering around the ruins before walking across the churchyard that it sits in to visit the slightly more modern Mariakyrka located opposite it.

By the time I’d visited the Mariakyrka there was just time left for a very late lunch/early dinner before it was time to retrace my steps back to the bus station, over to Knivsta and then back on the train to Uppsala. Back at the central station I grabbed some things from a small supermarket to have a light dinner with later and then headed back to the hotel.