Mårtens & Kullen Church Paths

From the 1600s until 1809, attending church was mandatory in Sweden. This meant that everyone was obligated to attend high mass in the church and also participate in other major religious events, such as baptisms, confirmations, weddings, and funerals. To facilitate attendance, church paths were maintained throughout the landscape.
On the final journey to the church, the coffin was often carried on strong shoulders along the long, winding church path. Sometimes it was dragged on a horse sled.

 

If you lived less than a mile from the church, you had to attend church every Sunday. However, the farther away from the church you lived, the less frequently you were required to attend.
 

In Grangärde, Mårtens and Kullen church paths still remain. If you want to walk them, you can either start from the northernmost Finnish village in the parish, Kullen, or from the Finnish settlement of Dalkarlsberg/Mårtens. The two paths converge at the village of Norrbo, leaving about half a mile to Grangärde Church. In the past, people would travel the final stretch by church boat, but in winter, they could walk across the ice.
 

The church paths were not just for going to church; they were also used by those heading to work. They connected forest villages with the church village. For this reason, it was important that the paths were maintained and kept accessible, even for horses and carts, in case someone was sick or unable to walk for another reason.
In spring, on an agreed-upon day, people from each farm would go out to maintain and clear the church paths. During winters, the paths were carefully plowed to keep them open. However, the winter route was often shorter since it could cross frozen marshes and lakes.
For hundreds of years, church and work paths were as vital as our roads are today. Long after church attendance was no longer mandatory, most people in Bergslagen continued to regularly visit the church to listen to the priest’s sermons and updates about the community. Additionally, few wanted to be seen as heathens, which one could be labeled if they didn’t attend church.
 

A walk on Mårtens and Kullen Church Paths is challenging as the trail traverses a landscape with an elevation difference of over 200 meters. However, it offers beautiful nature experiences and is interesting for those wanting to learn more about the Finnish forests in the northern part of Ludvika municipality.
To this day, the trail is maintained by many volunteers, each responsible for a section, ensuring the entire hiking trail is clear and marked with orange paint on tree trunks and signs.
Information boards provide details of general interest at various locations. At suitable rest stops, there are benches, tables, and shelters.
Near Mårtens, the Vargfors Fredriks cabin is open as a resting spot. At Ramsnorsen, there is a shelter, and close to the trail is a fishing and resting cabin open for overnight stays year-round.
You can choose to walk the entire trail or divide it into several stages. For example, Kullen – Norrbo is a 7 km stretch with a 100-meter elevation difference, or Dalkarlsberg/Mårtens – Norrbo, which is just over a mile long.
From the parking lot at Dalkarlsberg to Mårtens, there is a walking path of a couple of hundred meters. All three villages—Kullen, Dalkarlsberg (Mårtens), and Norrbo—are accessible by car.
 

The author Dan Andersson, who wrote many works about the Finnish forest, also wrote this poem about a funeral procession on a church path, giving insight into how it could feel.
 

A Fiddler’s Funeral Journey written by Dan Andersson (verses 2 and 3)
He was strange and lonely, say four black men,
he often suffered from a lack of shelter and bread. –
See a king, say the roses, and be trampled on again,
see a king and a dreamer is dead!
It’s far, say the bearers, it feels like many miles,
and as the day grows hotter, one becomes weary. –
Tread gently, speak softly, murmur the willow and sing the pine,
perhaps it’s a flower that has died.
 

But as the coffin sways black through the green spring forest,
a silence spreads through the morning-woken field,
and then the western wind pauses to listen to who tread
so heavily among the roses.
It’s only Olle the fiddler, whispers the pine and sings the spruce,
he has ended his homeless years. –
How amusing, answers the wind, if I were a hurricane,
I would play all the way where he goes!

 

Facts
Summer paths from old Finnish villages to Grangärde Church. Hiking trails, self-guided visits.
Well-signposted.

 

 

 

Toppbild: Per Stymne