Räpplinge kyrka

The earliest church on this site is thought to have been a timber building from the mid-11th century, replaced by a stone church in the 1100s. The surviving south wall of the nave and the west gable date from this early phase. Later in the same century the west tower was added, followed by a second tower to the east, briefly giving the building the form of a fortified 'clove-gable' church, reflecting the unsettled political conditions around the Baltic at the time. A chapel was added to the north side of the nave in 1240, and part of its west wall, with a vaulted arch and a small window, survives, along with a medieval stone altar.

The church suffered badly during the wars of the 1500s and 1600s because of its proximity to Borgholm Castle, and by the 18th century it was considered dilapidated. A major rebuilding took place from 1802 under master mason Henrik Wermelin, giving the interior its present hall-church form with large round-arched windows and barrel vaulting. The medieval west tower was itself substantially rebuilt in 1820 and crowned with an octagonal lantern topped by a cross; the two church bells, cast in 1684 and 1750, were moved into it from a former bell tower.

Inside, the coloured chancel windows designed by Erik Jerken in 1929, depicting the Sermon on the Mount and the Transfiguration, are among the features that catch the eye on entering the bright nave. The font is of Öland limestone, dated to 1642. A fragment of a secular embroidered tablecloth, thought to be Danish work from the 1600s, is kept in the sacristy; other pieces of the same cloth are held at the county museum in Kalmar.

The church's connection to the Swedish royal family, whose summer residence Solliden lies within the parish, is evident in several furnishings: an altar cloth embroidered by King Gustaf V, portraits of Gustaf V and Queen Victoria, and gilded royal chairs presented to the church in 1937 by Princess Sibylla and a Kalmar court jeweller. Two crucifixes, once kept at Solliden, were given to the church in 1951 by Princess Sibylla under Queen Victoria's will. A votive ship modelled on a Dutch warship, dated 1690, also hangs in the church.

The altarpiece, carved in a rustic rococo style by Jonas Berggren in 1755, centres on a depiction of the raising of the cross, while the pulpit, also by Berggren, shows Christ's conversation with the Samaritan woman. The artist Lotte Laserstein is buried in the churchyard.