Bredestads kyrka

The church is dedicated to Saint Laurentius. Its earliest surviving fabric includes the apse, chancel and eastern part of the nave, built of grey stone. The nave was extended westwards in the early to mid-1700s (Wikipedia gives 1690), and the tower, with its distinctive helm-shaped roof and tall spire, was raised around the same period. A sacristy to the north and a porch to the west, both built later in brick, complete the exterior. Inside, the flat wooden ceiling carries decorative painting from the 1700s.

Bredestad is traditionally known locally as an 'offerkyrka', or offering church, though there is no firm evidence this was its original character. The name is thought to date from the 1600s, when pilgrims travelling to the healing spring at Erkestorp in nearby Flisby parish would pass through Bredestad and leave offerings at the church to reinforce the spring water's supposed powers. The altarpiece of 1697, on the north wall of the nave, is thought to have been paid for from such offerings; it was made by Johan Kula and depicts Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac alongside the Resurrection of Christ.

Among the church's notable furnishings are two triumphal crucifixes, one from the late 1200s and another from the 1300s. The baroque pulpit, with its canopy, bears a painted inscription dating it to 1648; its style closely echoes the pulpit at Askeryd church, raising the possibility of a shared workshop tradition. The south wall holds two carved figures, one of Saint Michael from around 1200 and another depicting the apostle John. A chandelier said to date from the early medieval period also survives.

Other treasures include a chalice donated in 1833 by the noted hymn writer Samuel Hedborn, and an eighteenth-century bridal crown, still kept by the church and remembered as particularly fine. The bells have been recast or renewed over time: the larger bell was recast in 1778, and the smaller dates from 1813. The church has also had a succession of organs, from an early eighteenth-century instrument later sold to Rök, through several rebuilds, to a mechanical organ built in 1970 by Grönlunds, housed within an organ case dating from 1753.