A wintertime visit at the site of Varnhem

The Cistercian brothers built a monastery town in Varnhem in 1148 and at the end of 1200 the monastery church was the biggest sacred building in Sweden. During the reformations of the 1500s the monastery was closed down and the church abandoned. One hundred years later, Count Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie paid for a restoration of the church but the monastery was left to decay.

The impressive church is the burial place of long gone eras "celebrities", like the Eric royal family, the founder of Stockholm Birger Jal and of course the church's saviour, Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie and his wife, the Princess Maria Eufrosyne.

The sad traces of human activities were more than obvious during this visit to Varnhem monastery church site. All-over the area, many of the old trees were cut down and the signs of wheels of some monstrous track were apparent on the snow.

The stone cross of a grave that had survived the destruction of time, was torn down by careless and irresponsible humans in a split second.
What time, reformations and raids had not manage to destroy, was shuttered into pieces by the deeds of the  21st century civilised human.