Lisjö Estate Church
The estate owner Warner Groen of Larsansjö Estate was one of the estate owners who ensured there was a church on his property. However, being practical, it wasn’t just a church but also included seven blacksmiths’ residences in the same building.
The church and the priest were vital in the 18th century. At least once a month, everyone had to attend church services, including the estate owner and his family, as well as everyone else. Yes, even tenant farmers and those doing day labor at an estate had to attend, even if the church was far away.
Many estate owners built their own estate churches to ensure no workers could skip attending services. The church often showed its gratitude by hanging beautiful portraits of the estate owners. The family would also often have their own grave inside the church.
In 1746, Anna and Lars Adlerstedt owned an iron bar mill by the waterway between southern and northern Lisjö. They named their estate Larsansjö after their first names, Lars and Anna. However, in older times, when Gustav Vasa was the first owner of the property, it was called Lisjö Manor.
Larsansjö Estate had an iron bar hammer with two hearths. In the small smithy, they made scythes, axes, horseshoes, ox shoes, nails, spikes, fittings, and much more. By 1751, the estate had been sold to a prominent Swedish doctor, Professor Nils Rosén von Rosenstein.
Von Rosenstein was very dedicated to medical knowledge and worked hard to gain the professorship in medicine at Uppsala University. He was a contemporary of Carl von Linné, who was very devoted to botany. Interestingly, von Rosenstein initially got the professorship in botany while von Linné got the one in medicine. Luckily, the two were later able to exchange roles, and both were satisfied.
Von Rosenstein is considered the father of modern pediatrics.
When von Rosenstein took over Larsansjö, the buildings were in poor condition, but he soon restored them. He also devoted significant effort to the garden, where he cultivated many medicinal plants. Today, several old medicinal herbs can still be found in the garden, including butterbur, which beautifully borders the park against the lake.
In 1772, estate owner Warner Groen purchased Larsansjö Estate from Rosén von Rosenstein. He was one of the estate owners who built a church for his workers. Being practical, he didn’t build a structure solely as a church; instead, he ensured that seven blacksmiths’ residences were also included in the same building. Additionally, the upper floor of the church could be used as a schoolroom during the week, providing the estate children with a place to attend school.
The church was named Lisjö Church and was completed in 1795, nearly 50 years before compulsory schooling was introduced in Sweden.
The estate survived for over a hundred years before finally shutting down in 1854. It reopened in 1856, but only for a few years. In 1861, the entire estate operation at Larsansjö was moved to Surahammar. Thus, the iron bar hammer fell silent after over a century of steady pounding.
Facts
Original blacksmiths’ residence and church from the 18th century. In the 1700s, Nils Rosén von Rosenstein (1706–1773), who is considered the father of modern pediatrics, also lived here.
Today, the property is used for extensive agricultural operations, including crop cultivation, livestock production, forestry, hunting, fishing, and residential leasing.
The bell tower was built in 1928.
