Christianity established itself in Sweden about a thousand years ago. Already in the first centuries as Christians, we built more than a thousand churches.
The people who lived in a village and who all attended the same church formed a parish. There was a lot of walking to the church, by foot or by horse and carriage. Church was not only a religious gathering spot - meeting people at church and exchanging the latest news was certainly worth some travelling.
With all this wandering and travelling, church paths arose, Gustav Vasa ordered the parishioners to always make sure that the church path was passable. It was important that people came to church.
Many church paths have now fallen into oblivion and become overgrown with forest. Over time, the church paths were replaced with other and better roads that were suitable for the new means of transport such as bicycles, cars and buses. Sometimes the parish built a new church to replace the old one that had become too small, perhaps in a different location. And then the need for the old church path disappeared.
From start to finish the church path i Holmedal is about 2.5 km. At the finish line there is a nice picnic area.
