Vindeln

Vindeln lies on the Vindel River, upstream from Umeå. The older village of Degerfors stood above the riverbank, in a poor and sparsely populated district whose inhabitants faced a long journey to church. A chapel parish was approved in 1738, but construction took decades. Around thirty farmers and as many settlers built the small wooden church, which was completed in 1769. Its cross-shaped plan gave the scattered community a place to gather for worship.