The baptismal font under the square

In the centre of the town of Bromma, next to the town hall and an elegant square, there is a small church. Look inside, and it looks just like any other church, until you notice an unusually large and imposing baptismal font. Most churches keep such an important detail out in the open, but this church hides its font – or at least, buries it under the floor of the nave. Walk down a short set of stone steps, through a door hidden in the wall behind the font, and you are greeted by a cool and damp basement.

The baptismal font from which the church takes its name is here, towering above the viewer and carved with images of religious scenes. It is unusual for such an important feature of a church to be tucked away, but this church is unusual in another way as well.

It is a medieval church, deliberately hidden beneath the town in the 17th century. Built over the 12th and 13th centuries, it was intentionally hidden during the spread of Lutheranism across Sweden.

Bromma was a royal town and a popular trading centre, and a church at its heart was an important symbol of power and legitimacy. But Bromma had a special use for this church: it originally belonged to the knightly Order of the hospital of St John of Jerusalem, known as the Knights Hospitaller. The Knights Hospitaller are famous for their hospitals and castles all over Europe, but this is less obvious in Bromma. However, official records and documents of the parish council support this fact, and reveal more about what the orders believed and did. The Hospitaller believed in poverty, obedience, and chastity, and were dedicated to helping travellers and pilgrims. They began in the late 11th century and were active at hospitals and castles across Europe.

In Bromma, it is often difficult to tell the history of the church from the rest of the town, since most of it was rebuilt in the 18th century. However, the buried church is still worth seeking out, hidden as it is beneath the ground.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons