The King's Church (St. Per's Church Ruin)

When Sigtuna was founded by King Erik Segersäll in the 980s, the purpose was to seek control over people and create a kingdom like the European kingdoms he had heard about or maybe even seen. He knew how a city should be built and that it was with the church he would collaborate. Erik was a modern Nordic king. The goal was a kingdom with a king and a god. He would be that king and the church's head – the priest in the new kingdom. For the nobility in the surroundings, it was exciting and new – a Christian city! Should one be part of it or stand outside? St. Peter's Church might have been built as early as around the year 1100, approximately a hundred years after the city's founding. The church was likely built by and for the king. The king's power was still fighting to strengthen the kingdom and its role as the head of the church. High up in the central tower's façade towards the nave, there is an impressive and peculiar portal. It might have functioned as a coronation portal where the king, at the annual high holidays, such as Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, would appear in a position between God and ordinary mortals and receive the congregation's reverence – as God's man in the new kingdom.

Källa: https://destinationsigtuna.se/