Sjörups gamla kyrka

The church was built under master mason Carl Stenmästare, who is also said to have worked on Lund Cathedral, completed in 1145. It replaced an earlier wooden stave church that had stood on the same site during Skåne's early Christian period, when the region was part of Denmark.

The building's layout is unusual: there is no true right angle anywhere in the church interior. The north and south walls are of equal length and run parallel, but the south wall is offset half a metre to the west relative to the north. This asymmetry is traditionally said to symbolise the crucified Christ, whose head sank to one side at the moment of death.

Other details reflect medieval beliefs. The church originally had two entrances, one on the south side for men and one on the north for women; the northern doorway was later bricked up, though traces of its frame can still be seen. The north wall has no windows at all, since north was traditionally associated with darkness and evil.

The tower and sacristy were added around 1270, and the vaulted ceiling was built in the 1300s. A porch was added in front of the south doorway in the late medieval period. Near the entrance stands a runestone, known as the Sjörup stone, thought to date from the 900s.

By the nineteenth century, the growing parish, then numbering around 1,900 people, had outgrown the church's 127 seats. Rather than extend the old building, a new and more centrally located church, Vallösa kyrka, was built and completed in 1882. Sjörup's old church was converted into a classroom for confirmation candidates, and its furnishings, including a pulpit attributed to the so-called AS Borsö Master, were sold off.

Once a separate building for confirmation classes was erected near the rectory, the old church was left empty and began to decay. By the early twentieth century the porch had been demolished, the upper tower had collapsed, the roof had fallen in, and the west gable had given way, leaving a picturesque ruin on the hilltop. Restoration between 1932 and 1935 halted the decline, and further work over the following decades rebuilt the tower and restored the interior, including the installation of electric heating. The church was reconsecrated in 1969. It remains unheated and, according to parish sources, has traditionally been used only during the summer months.