Vä

Title

Vä

Also Known As

Abbio, Auue, Ave, Ewid, Ewitanium, Ewitenium, Mariakyrkan i Vä, Uwe, Vue, Vüe, Wá

Dates

Founded early 12th c.; Premonstratensian from ca. 1170; moved ca. 1250

Dedication

Mary

Affiliation

Tommarp

Medieval Diocese

Lund

History

The church of St Mary at Vä was likely built in the early 12th century by Margaret Fredkulla, queen of Denmark and Norway. In ca. 1170, a Premonstratensian abbey was founded around that church at the instigation of Eskil, archbishop of Lund, and of Valdemar I and Sophia, king and queen of Denmark. In ca. 1250, the brothers moved to Backaskog.

The church of Vä continued to serve as a parish church. In the 1960s, the church underwent a major restoration and archaeological survey. It contains some of the oldest church murals in Sweden.

Heads of Community

Abbots

Adam, fl. 12th c.
Gilbert, fl. 1170?
Tobias, 1182-?
Thedricus?
Johannes, fl. 1241

Status

Abbey; later parish church

Bibliography

Arbman, Holger. “En medeltida ryttarakvamanil från Vä kyrka.” Fornvännen. Journal of Swedish Antiquarian Research, 1947, 48–50. http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1224363/FULLTEXT01.pdf.

Bøllingtoft, Peder. “Untersuchungen von Maßen, Maßstabsvorlagen und Konstruktionsmethoden in den Monumentalmalereien der Kirchen von Idensen und Vä.” In Forschungsprojekt Wandmalerei-Schäden: ein Förderprojekt des Bundesministers für Forschung und Technologie ; Schlußbericht zu den interdisziplinären Befunden, edited by Christiane Segers-Glocke, 54–60. Arbeitshefte zur Denkmalpflege in Niedersachsen 11. Hameln, 1994.

Graebe, Henrik. “En kunglig kyrka.” Ale. Historisk tidskrift för Skåneland 1, no. 1 (1966): 1–9. https://www.tidskriftenale.nu/pdfale/ALE-1966-1_v02.pdf.

———. “Kalkmålningarna i Vä kyrka.” Ale. Historisk tidskrift för Skåneland, no. 2 (1967): 1–14. https://www.tidskriftenale.nu/pdfale/ALE-1967-2_v02.pdf.

Kaspersen, Søren. “The Vä Master and His Workshop: Some Danish Murals and Their European Background.” In Romanesque Art in Scandinavia, edited by Søren Kaspersen, Ebbe Nyborg, and Hannemarie Ragn Jensen, 97–130. Hafnia. Copenhagen Papers in the History of Art 12. Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen Press, 2003.

Rydbeck, Monika. “En relikdosa från Vä kyrka.” Ale. Historisk tidskrift för Skåneland, no. 2 (1965): 24–30. https://www.tidskriftenale.nu/pdfale/ALE-1965-2_v02.pdf.

Skyum-Nielsen, Niels. “De aeldste privilegier for klostret i Vae. Et nyfund.” Scandia: Tidskrift för Historisk Forskning 21, no. 1 (1951): 1–28. https://journals.lub.lu.se/scandia/article/view/674.

Image Credit

The church of Vä, 2014. Wikimedia.

Files

Collection

Denmark and Norway

Citation

“Vä,” A Premonstratensian Atlas, accessed October 16, 2026, https://yvonneseale.org/atlas/items/show/468.

Geolocation

Item Relations

This Item DependentOn Item: Tommarp
Item: Kiaby DependentOn This Item
Item: Bäckaskog DependentOn This Item
Item: Skepparslöv DependentOn This Item