Photos: Kristin Schyllner
The church's history
The question of a church of its own in the current central town of Tierp was raised quite early. In a city plan from 1891, it was proposed that a church should be built roughly between the present Humlegården and Norra Esplanaden. The most insistent to build a church were actually the free church people in the community as well as leading businessmen. The town still had no greater function than being a station community, as the railway had been inaugurated in December 1874.
Ecclesiastically, half of the community belonged to Tierps parish with its parish church about five kilometers south towards Uppsala and the other half belonged to Västland parish with Tolfta church also about five kilometers north towards Strömsberg. In January 1922, the then Archbishop Nathan Söderblom was courted by a two-man delegation from Tierp's köping. On June 11 of the same year, the archbishop took part in an evening service held at Storberget. On this occasion, a sketch for a church or chapel drawn up by architect Cyrill Johansson was shown. The archbishop then proposed that a working group should be appointed to work on the church building issue.
The years passed and it was only at the end of September 1931 that a unanimous decision was made to build a church on Storberget in Tierp's köping. The decision was made by the church committee in Tierps parish. Architect L. N. Gramén, Stockholm, was commissioned to design a church, and in March 1933 the construction company Ansgarius Fahlstedt, Gävle, was accepted as contractor. The cost was estimated at SEK 74,400. On March 28, 1933, Domprovost Gustaf Lizell, Uppsala, performed the ceremonial laying of the foundation stone. Under the foundation stone behind the altar, a sealed casket was built into the wall. In this casket are the church's drawings, a history written by Kh Östlund and the latest coins minted.
One of the big questions before the dedication of the church was what its name would be. Kh Östlund wrote – "A Christian church should, as a rule, be named after one of the figures of the New Testament". The church was therefore given the name Nathanael Church at its inauguration on Ascension Day, May 10, 1934. Nathanael was one of Jesus' disciples.