Before the monks arrived

Back to the history of Varnhem

Before the monks arrived

The excavation findings tell the story of site from the time before the monks arrived, during the Viking Age and the Iron Age. On the hill behind the abbey ruins in Varnhem, the ruins of one of Sweden's oldest churches were found. The first wooden church was built at the end of the 10th century as a private estate church on the large estate of Varnhem. The wooden church was soon converted into a stone church with a crypt. The burial site around contains thousands of graves, of which just over 300 have been examined. Here, people began to bury the dead according to Christian burial customs as early as the first half of the 10th century, which are sensationally early datings. The findings have partly led to the rewriting of Västergötland's history. The Christianisation occurred generations before the baptism of Olof Skötkonung in Husaby, which according to tradition took place at the beginning of the 11th century.

The large estate Varnhem was donated to the monks in the mid-12th century, and then Varnhem Abbey was built. The findings reveal that the monks did not demolish the estate church but reused the building, at least during the 13th and 14th centuries. The opening between the chancel and the nave was bricked up. In the chancel, there was a bronze foundry and in the nave some form of dwelling, perhaps a guesthouse.

Christian Vikings in Varnhem

In April 2016, the construction of the protective roof over the church foundation at Kata Gård began. It is a glulam structure, shaped like a triangle with two equal sides. There are no walls, only floors and ceilings. The floor is open in the middle and there you can look down at the 1000-year-old church ruin.  The building is completely unheated and follows the outdoor temperature changes of the seasons. The roof protects the church foundation from precipitation and also from strong sunlight, which is not good for the limestone in the walls. The architect is Prof. Magnus Silfverhielm at AIX Architects.

Inside the building, the exhibition "Christian Vikings in Varnhem" is currently on display. The main focus of the exhibition is on the church ruin with the crypt, which is clearly visible in the middle of the building. Visitors can move around the ruin and see it from all angles. A couple of models show what the first wooden church and the fully developed stone church may have looked like. Through glass sections in the floor, some of the graves can be seen, especially Kata's lavish grave with the rune-inscribed grave slab on the northern side.

In the exhibition, the intriguing excavation finds and results are placed in context, both locally in Västergötland and in relation to the wider world. Here we tell about the Viking Age in Västergötland, about the Christianisation, about the journeys westward, about the people in Varnhem, about life and health, and about the large farm that was here 1,000 years ago.

In the park surrounding the nearly 4000 square metre cementery around the parish church, thousands of graves remain beneath the grass turf. Outside the cemetery, to the east and north, there are traces of the estate's other buildings. In the pasture outside the stone wall, several pre-Christian burial mounds from the Iron Age can be seen, where the farm's people buried their dead before Christianity arrived.

Kata - the reconstruction of a Viking Age woman

The traces in the ground, the church ruin, and the graves testify to a powerful and significant family with connections all over Europe. Thanks to a rune-inscribed gravestone, we know the names of some of these people – Kata, her husband Kättil, and her brother Torgils. Kata's grave is a well-built masonry limestone chest from the mid-11^th  century. The location right next to the church ruin on the northern side, the fine coffin and the runestone clearly indicate that Kata belonged to the elite of society. She was probably the owner of the large estate Varnhem during the first half of the 11th century.

The well-preserved skeleton shows that she was 160 cm tall. There are no wear-and-tear injuries on the skeleton, no signs of hard work. She had fine, even teeth, without cavities, infections or noticeable wear. The skeleton testifies to a privileged life, but despite that, she only lived to be 30-35 years old. Kata will be our guide to life on the large farm at the end of the Viking Age. Through her, we want to tell the story of life and death in Västergötland 1000 years ago. Kata has therefore given her name to the new visitor attraction in Varnhem – Kata Farm.

To get a closer look at Kata and who she actually was, we wanted to literally remake her in the flesh, and reconstruct what she may have looked like while she lived. Based on information from the osteological analysis of the skeleton and DNA analyses, combined with proven methodology for facial reconstruction, model maker Oscar Nilsson has recreated the Viking woman Kata in the form of a full-scale model. With the help of findings of costume details and fabric fragments in the graves in Varnhem, museum educator Mari Wickerts at the Gothenburg City Museum has recreated an authentic costume for Kata.

See more of Kata

The recreated Kata with her beautiful clothes is part of the exhibition "Skara in the Middle Ages" at the Västergötland Museum. There are also some of the objects found during the excavations in Varnhem: beads, buckles, coins, a travel altar and a Viking axe, to name a few.