Alb�ke Church and its parish have been central to the religious life of our Swedish family for generations; but the church's own roots go much deeper.
The name Alb�ke refers to a "shrine under alders and beeches", a sacred grove for pagan worship at least as old as the Iron Age, ca. 500 B.C. The first Christian church was built of logs in the 1100's, on the site already revered for its mystical past. A century later the church was constructed in stone, with a design unique to �land, the kl�vsadelskyrkan, so called because of its resemblance to a high-pommeled saddle.
Subject as they were to raiders from the sea, the �landers built their church and its compound for defense. From the high towers they could observe ememies approaching across the Alvaret; within the high walls surrounding the churchyard, the community could gather safely to wait out an attack, or to defend themselves and their church against marauders.
In 1665 a small gallery was erected on the north wall; throughout the next century the church was remodeled several times. For some time the bell tower stood detached from the church building proper (See the bell tower at �sle Church). In 1794 the old medievel altar was replaced, with some of the original wood carving re-used in new pieces. (After collecting dust in the woodshed for many years, the altar would eventually find its way to the Castle Museum in Kalmar.) 
Surely the parishioners in our family at nearby Askelunda were involved in the project.
New wall paintings were commissioned. Painted statues of Moses and St. John still remain from the original altar, however, including the figure of Christ on the medievel crucifix. Of course the stone baptismal font from Gotland, carved in the 1300's, still serves its function -- as it no doubt served at the baptisms of Johann Olson and his siblings.
In 1859 the parishioners of Alb�ke undertook their most drastic construction project since the middle ages. An architect was hired and a new church building constructed adjoining the north wall of the old twin-towered structure. A plank road was constructed to haul stone to the site by horse and wagon.
Finally in 1862 (the year of Nels Alfred Olson's birth), the old church, the last "saddle-church" in �land, was demolished, its ancient stones re-used to build the new steeple that stands today. Many of the old church stones were also used to repave the floor of the new church.
It was probably this church in its present form where our great grandfather John Olson was christened in 1871, where he and his brothers and sisters worshiped, where they spoke their confirmation verses. In the churchyard cemetery their parents and grandparents are buried. With no one left to take the responsibility, the resting places of Ole Magnusson and his wife are no longer marked. But other family members still worship in this church, and they still tend the graves that remain, like that of Ole's brother and master at Askelunda, Johann Peter Magnusson - our own Grandpa John's uncle and namesake. And the Alb�ke Church still stands, as they say in �land, in "...a room without walls, with the �lander Alvaret as a floor and the Heavens for a ceiling."