Abstract
The symbolism present in medieval church buildings and church interiors has been extensively studied. The aim of this article is to draw attention to the less considered space surrounding the churches, that is the churchyards. The layout larchitecture) of the churchyard must have been just as meaningful as the church itself. In the present interpretation it is suggested that the Scandinavian churchyard, due to its form, was associated with the town and its connotations. The churchyard is proposed to have been apprehended as a "piece of town" moved out into the rural landscape, representing some of the things that the town or city stood for: the ideal society, the centre of the world and a manifestation of power (and perhaps also contra-power). The point of departure is the observation that medieval churchyards in their layout resemble in some respects how the contemporaneous towns were spatially organised.
Highlights
The symbolism present in medieval church buildings and church interiors has been extensively studied
If you move around the churchyard, you will notice the regular form of the wall
Why plots are found in the towns is commonly explained as a result of the introduction of new social and economical ideas and modes, the change designated as a feudalisation of Scandinavia
Summary
The symbolism present in medieval church buildings and church interiors has been extensively studied. Snorri Sturluson's accounts, which repeatedly state that this or that king founded a town by building a royal manor, erecting a church, and dividing the ground into lots for people to build houses on, seem to be confirmed (cf Heimskringla) This structure resembles the division into bellatores, oratores and laborrltores (perhaps, though, more valid in the days of Snorri than in the time of early Sigtuna), a structure recognisable in the tower, chancel and nave of the Romanesque churches (Anglert 1998).It indicates a striving to create places, towns included, that embodied the Christian ideology 126 .Anna Hed. /al obnorr adjustment to house-lots and street-grids in the early towns, this would have influenced the connotations of the churchyard
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