Not all buildings have been preserved, according to statistics from the church office and the dioceses, write Church Newspaper.
About ten have been bought by municipalities where some of them have become preschools, around 15 have been sold to other religious communities, six have been demolished and three have burned down.
“Disposing of church buildings is a decision that is governed by the parishes’ needs and finances. Therefore, it is natural that you sometimes arrive at the conclusion that you have no use for a building,” says Markus Dahlberg, head of the unit for cultural heritage support in the Church of Sweden to the newspaper.
Since the year 2000, 25 new church buildings have been built. The Church of Sweden currently has approximately 3,400 consecrated churches, of which approximately 3,000 are protected according to the Cultural Environment Act.