Vadstena Abbey Church
The Blue Church in Vadstena was built for the abbey founded by St Birgitta. She had learned in a revelation how the church should look: simple, without splendour, with aisles of equal height. The grey, bluish limestone gave the church its name.
In the 1340s Birgitta Birgersdotter received revelations about a new religious order, and King Magnus Eriksson and Queen Blanche gave the royal estate in Vadstena to the abbey. Birgitta died in Rome in 1373, and her remains were brought home to Vadstena the following year. Work on the church had begun in 1369 and continued for several decades; the church was consecrated in 1430. It was built of limestone, with elements of brick, and the grey stone with a bluish tone gave it the name the Blue Church. The Bridgettine order spread from Vadstena across Europe.
Birgitta had described in detail how the church should be designed. It is a hall church with three aisles of the same height and groin vaults carried by octagonal piers. The church was to be simple and strong, without superfluous decoration. The orientation is the reverse of the usual: the high altar stands in the west. The nuns had their choir on a gallery, so that nuns and monks could take part in the same services without seeing one another. The church has rich medieval furnishings, with altarpieces and sculptures.
After the Reformation the abbey was dissolved, but the nuns were allowed to remain until 1595. The church became a parish church and has kept much of its furnishings, among them the shrine with the relics of Birgitta and her daughter Katarina. The abbey buildings were later used as a home for old soldiers and as a hospital. Today there are Bridgettine sisters in Vadstena again. The church is one of Sweden’s most important medieval buildings and shows how a woman’s visions could shape architecture.