Vallösa kyrka

The church owes its existence to the sharp rise in Sweden's rural population during the nineteenth century. The old parish church, at Sjörup, dated from the late twelfth century and seated only around 127 people—far too few for a congregation that had grown to some 1,900. Agreement that a change was needed came quickly at a parish meeting in 1863, but the process that followed was long and contested, with numerous appeals over where a new church should stand. Nearly two decades later, the present church, built more centrally in the parish at Vallösa, was consecrated on the first Sunday of Advent in 1882.

The building is constructed of grey fieldstone with rendered white panels, in a style drawing on both Romanesque and Gothic elements. It was originally built as a cruciform church, but as the local population later declined rather than grew, the transept arms were judged surplus to need. In a 1962 remodelling, the south transept became a sacristy and the north transept a mortuary chamber.

The church's most distinctive furnishing is its pulpit, carved in a Baroque style around 1630 by a sculptor known only by the initials "A S", sometimes called the "Borsöe Master" and regarded by specialists as a notable figure in Nordic Baroque woodcarving. It depicts the evangelists among other figures and originally stood in the chapel at Borsöe (Bosjöe), near Marsvinsholm Castle. After that chapel was demolished, the pulpit passed to Balkåkra church, and later, when that building too went out of use, it was given to Vallösa. Other furnishings brought from the old Sjörup church include a bell cast in 1598, a Bible associated with Charles XII, some brass candlesticks and a chandelier.

The churchyard holds a gravestone with an inscription warning the living, in the manner of a memento mori, that death comes to all in turn—a reminder of the churchyard's older role as a meditation on mortality as well as a place of remembrance.

The medieval church at Sjörup itself survived, latterly used as a confirmation hall before falling into disrepair; it was restored to its earlier appearance in 1969 following old plans. Today the former Sjörup parish therefore has two churches, and services are said to move to the old Sjörup church during the summer months when it is open, though current arrangements should be checked locally.