Kölaby kyrka

The present church was constructed between 1832 and 1836 to designs by the architect P. G. Friberg, replacing a medieval predecessor on the same spot. Interestingly, the original plans called for a three-sided chancel, but these were revised during construction towards a rounded form then considered more fashionable.

The interior owes much of its character to work carried out later in the century. The altarpiece, painted in 1892 by the locally active artist Anders Gustaf Ljungström, sits within a Neo-Gothic altarpiece structure designed by the architect Erik Josephson. The pulpit also dates from 1892, though its carved decoration was reused from an older pulpit of 1670, a nice link to the church's earlier furnishings.

Decorative painting in the window recesses and galleries was added in the 1930s and again in the 1950s, the latter as part of a wider renovation under Carl Otto Svensson, when the interior was repainted in light tones that still give the church its airy feel today.

A striking historic object greets visitors in the porch: a rune stone (known as Vg 178), which was brought inside in 1997 after conservation work halted its gradual erosion. Only the sandstone foot of the medieval font survives from before the rebuilding, the font itself having been replaced by a donated piece in 1947.

The church also has two organs of note. The main organ, on the west gallery behind a stumm case built in 1867 by Svante Johansson, replaced an earlier instrument by Erik Adolf Setterquist; some of the Setterquist pipework is thought to survive within the present 1953 organ. A smaller chancel organ, with a case from around 1970 and mechanical action built in 2014, stands beside the altar.