Östra Ämterviks kyrka

The present church replaced an earlier wooden church, thought to be medieval, which stood roughly 100 metres to the southwest; one source records that this earlier building was destroyed by fire following a lightning strike in 1781. The new stone church was built between 1795 and 1798, unusually orientated north-south with the chancel facing south rather than east, as was customary. A sacristy was added to the south side of the chancel in 1844; the space it replaced now forms part of the chancel itself.

The building is a simple, austere example of the neoclassicism fashionable at the time of its construction, with whitewashed walls, round-arched windows and a west tower topped by a flat cupola and lantern. Much of the fixed interior dates from the nineteenth century, including a chancel arrangement combining an altar ornament with a small chancel organ, said to form an unusually complete and unified ensemble. This organ was built in 1840, with the two documents attributing it to different builders and giving slightly different dates - one names Andreas Jönsson in 1840, the other Andreas Åbergh in 1847 - so the precise attribution is uncertain.

Among the church's furnishings is a nyklassicist pulpit from 1848, made by a local craftsman, and a granite font dating from 1948. The chancel has at various times displayed two former altarpieces: one depicting the Crucifixion, painted by Paul Piltz and donated to the church by Selma Lagerlöf herself, which served as the altarpiece from 1920 to 1948; the other a work by Bo Sonnsjö, used between 1977 and 1984. A restoration in 1984 added an enclosed space beneath the west gallery, which also houses a larger organ built in 1909.

The church and its surroundings, together with the nearby Herresta rectory, feature prominently in Selma Lagerlöf's writing, and the churchyard contains the Lagerlöf family grave in which the author is buried.