Stora Tuna

Stora Tuna lies in a fertile district along the Dalälven and was a religious and political centre of Dalarna in the later Middle Ages. Its great parish embraced a wide area of farms and mining country. Assemblies met near the church, and medieval records also mention a royal estate at Tuna. The large church, consecrated in 1469, reflected the wealth and standing of the district.

In 1557 Gustav Vasa made Tuna the seat of a superintendent with episcopal authority over Dalarna, though this arrangement did not last. Early in the following century Charles IX planned a town called Gustafs stad near the church and granted it privileges. The project was abandoned, and Falun later became the town centre of the mining region instead. Tuna nevertheless remained an important parish among the cultivated lands of the river valley.