Today's Sunday travel photo is of the Rättviks Parish church (Church of Sweden) which sits on the edge of Lake Siljan and dates from 1300. It has been extended several times with its present shape dating from 1793.
Most interesting to me were the wooden stables around the church where parishioners used to stable their horses while they attended church: 87 of the stables remain some from the end of the 15th century.
Some parishioners would arrive at the church in what are called 'church boats'. Some of these boats were as long as 100 feet and could carry many people, sometimes all the inhabitants of a small village. Each church boat had rowlocks carved with the insignia of its village. There are only a few church boats left in Dalarna and some are used in summer church boat races on Lake Siljan.
