Vita kyrkoväggar - myten om kalkmålningarna och reformationen

It is a myth, that the medieval ecclesiastic wall-paintings were whitewashed during the Reformation. The myth lives on, as it is perceived as a simple explanation of the contrast between the white church walls and vaults at e.g. Saint Peter in Malmö and the colorful wall-paintings of the chapel of the vendors there. The myth also finds support in some literature and on webpages, although it has been known since the end of the 19th century, that the tradition of paintings continued after the Reformation, as it is known from the town church of Ronneby 1586, and the tradition first died out in the period 1650–1800. The whitewashing took place over an extended period from the 16th century into the 19th century, when the images had become old, outdated and dirty. In Malmö, however, the images were whitewashed as early as in 1555 and in Halmstad in the 1580s, perhaps because of so-called crypto-calvinistic tendencies.