Färlöv Church 1.6

Färlöv Church is a medieval Lutheran church in Färlöv in the province of Scania, Sweden. It belongs to the Diocese of Lund.HistoryThe presently visible church was preceded by a wooden stave church, built during the 11th century. The oldest parts of the presently visible Romanesque church date from about 1180. The twin tower, the nave and the choir form the oldest parts of the church. According to legend, the two towers were constructed by the wife of a local knight. The story goes that the knight went away to fight in a war while his wife was pregnant, and asked his servants to build a tower to the church in case she gave birth to a son. When he returned from the war and saw the two towers, he realised that she had given birth to twins. In reality, twin western towers are not an unknown element in Romanesque architecture, although not known from any other parish church in Scania. While it is unknown who built the church and why, the presence of the twin towers thus do denote high ambitions. From the extensive use of finely cut and worked granite, scholars have deduced that the workers building the church probably came from Jutland, where similar granite churches exist. During the 15th century, the vaults in the choir were decorated with frescoes. During the late Middle Ages the nave was also vaulted; but when the church was enlarged towards the north in 1770, these vaults were destroyed. The southern transept was added roughly a hundred years later.