Sjötorps kyrka

The church was completed in 1956 to designs by Anders Ekman, an architect and restorer from Skövde. It is a modest timber building, seating around a hundred people, with a steeply pitched roof and walls clad in tarred wooden shingles. The sacristy and chancel form extensions at the rear, while the western entrance leads through a porch and staircase up to the gallery. Inside, the nave has a central aisle and fixed pews, with pale standing wood panelling set off by blue as the dominant colour, and the altar placed against the end wall.

The churchyard itself predates the church by four decades, having been laid out in 1916. A freestanding bell tower was erected in 1930, designed by the Gothenburg architect G. Åhlander; it houses a small chapel space and, according to Wikipedia, an altar painting by Saga Walli, though this attribution is not mentioned in the Platser source. The bell itself, cast in 1930, weighs 600 kilograms.

The altar painting inside the main church, depicting Christ's appearance at the Sea of Galilee, is the work of the Stockholm artist Bengt Hamrén (also spelled Hamren in one source). Much of the church's other furnishing reflects the efforts of the local community: many items were donated by the parish sewing circle, active since 1925, and by individual Sjötorp residents. The wrought ironwork on the church doors, the cross above the altar, and the baptismal candlestick were all made by churchwarden Axel Isaksson, while the font itself was carved from Kinnekulle stone in 1958.

A notable feature is the collection of votive ships hanging in the nave, a tradition found in many Swedish coastal and lakeside churches. The full-rigged ship Gamen, made in 1920 by sea captain Karl Andersson, hangs at the front. Wikipedia also records two further models, the schooner Westkust and the galeas Lidan, made by Ingemar Ramberg and donated to the church in 2011; these are not mentioned in the Platser account. The church organ was built by Smedmans Orgelbyggeri of Lidköping in 1987.