SEK 530 million to preserve ecclesiastical cultural heritage

The allocation of the ecclesiastical heritage grant for 2016 is complete. The dioceses and parishes of the Church of Sweden will share SEK 530 million to preserve and protect their ecclesiastical cultural heritage.

“The ecclesiastical heritage grant helps us conserve and maintain churches’ cultural environments nationwide in an advanced way,” says Markus Dahlberg, head of the cultural heritage support unit at the Church of Sweden.

As in previous years, the priority will be the long-term planning of conservation and maintenance so that the grant is used optimally. Just over 13% of the allocated grant framework is approved for overall inventory and planning work.

The main part – about 80% – of the dioceses’ applications are for projects related to conservation measures. Other projects are for damage prevention measures, about 6%, and work on security issues, about 5%. The applications above all concern church buildings, some 80%, followed by cemeteries and church grounds, approximately 13% and church furniture, fittings and other objects, roughly 4%. The final distribution of the money will take place in the autumn when the dioceses decide which projects in the parishes will receive funding.

There has previously been a surplus linked to the ecclesiastical cultural heritage grant. The Central Board of the Church of Sweden has therefore increased the allocation to dioceses and parishes for a number of years. The surplus is now judged to have been dealt with as the funds have been allocated to various projects. A gradual reduction in the size of the framework decisions is therefore now planned to bring it down to the level of the government allocation: SEK 460 million per year.

CONTACT:
Markus Dahlberg
head of the unit for cultural heritage support at the Church of Sweden, tel: +46 18 16 98 78.

About the ecclesiastical heritage grants:
When the relationship between the Church of Sweden and the state changed in 2000, the parties agreed that the Church would receive a grant for the conservation of Sweden’s largest cohesive collection of cultural heritage. The grant consists of support to and compensation for the responsibility taken by the Church of Sweden for church buildings, church grounds, church furniture, fittings and other objects, and cemeteries.
The general sub-committee of the Church of Sweden’s Central Board is distributing a total of SEK 530 million to the dioceses this year. On average, the dioceses have been granted 63% of the framework applied for. The decision may need to be adjusted following the Riksdag’s (Swedish Parliament’s) decision on the budget for 2016, which will be made this autumn.

Allocation of the grant to the dioceses in 2016: