Hässleby kyrka

The present church was built between 1857 and 1859 to designs by Fredrik Wilhelm Scholander, one of the leading Swedish architects of the nineteenth century. It replaced a medieval stone church, which had itself succeeded an earlier wooden building. The new church was consecrated in 1861 by the provost Johan Arvid Moberger of Södra Vi.

The tower originally rose to a tall spire, but after being struck by lightning twice, in 1888 and 1891, it was rebuilt to its present form. On this occasion Scholander's original drawings were followed, and the spire was replaced with a simpler saddle roof, giving the tower its current appearance.

A major renovation began in 1925, when a historicising medieval-style altarpiece was replaced by the present classical altarpiece with columns. During a further large-scale restoration in 1961 this altarpiece was itself restored and complemented with four paintings by Waldemar Lorentzon, a member of the Halmstad Group of artists.

Despite the rebuilding of the church in the 1850s, a number of much older fittings survive. These include an oak sculpture of Christ from an altar shrine dating from the late fifteenth century, a small sanctus bell surviving from the pre-Reformation Catholic era, brass altar candlesticks from the fifteenth or sixteenth century, and a chest with inlaid decoration, probably originally a secular piece, from the late sixteenth century. A brass font was donated to the church in 1675.

The pulpit was designed by Scholander himself, reportedly built around the frame of the pulpit from the earlier church. During the 1925 renovation its neo-Romanesque character was altered to a Baroque one, incorporating surviving carved elements and wooden sculptures rescued from the old church, which still adorn the pulpit today.

The church has a pipe organ with a history of rebuilding: an instrument built in 1878 by Sven & Erik Nordström of Eksjö was substantially reworked in 1951 by the Danish firm Theodor Frobenius & Co, retaining some older pipework alongside new material. A smaller mechanical organ for the choir was added in 1974 by Åkerman & Lund.