Stjärnorps kyrka

The chapel was built between 1658 and 1661 as part of Stjärnorp Castle, commissioned by the field marshal Robert Douglas. It was fitted out with an altarpiece, a red-clad pulpit and a small organ, and served as a private chapel for the household as well as for tenant farmers living too far from the parish church to attend regular services there.

A severe fire in May 1789 destroyed most of the castle and its chapel, but local people were keen to see it rebuilt quickly, and the restored chapel was reconsecrated later that same year. In 1810 it became the parish church of Stjärnorp. The building is single-naved with a mansard roof, and a side tower to the south of the chancel houses the vestry and bell chamber; two bells hang there, cast in 1790 and 1885. In 1914 the interior was remodelled in an Art Nouveau style to designs by Fredrik Falkenberg, and a smaller restoration was overseen by the architect Ivar Tengbom in 1950.

The most striking object inside is the altarpiece showing the suffering Christ on the cross, a copy of a celebrated painting by Diego Velázquez in the Prado Museum in Madrid, donated to the church in 1921. The two chancel windows carry stained glass from 1914 by the Stockholm workshop Neumann & Vogel, depicting Moses with the tablets of the law and John the Baptist. Two box pews at the front, decorated with biblical texts, were traditionally used by the count's family.

The church has had a series of organs reflecting changing tastes: an eight-stop instrument built in 1885 was replaced in 1941 by a larger pneumatic organ, and the present organ, built in 1988, was designed with historically inspired mechanical action and casework.

Sources differ slightly on the founding date of the chapel: one record gives 1661 as the year of consecration, while another notes the rebuilt chapel was reconsecrated in October 1789 after the fire, with the site earlier described as a private hall-church rather than a full parish church until 1810.