Önnestads kyrka is a parish church in the village of Önnestad, around 13 kilometres west of Kristianstad in Skåne. Built in the Romanesque style, probably around the year 1200, it belongs to the Church of Sweden and has undergone several significant transformations over the centuries.
The original church was a modest Romanesque building, with the tower added roughly a century later, around 1300. It is thought the church never had an apse but did have a porch on its south side. Vaulted ceilings were not part of the original design; these were probably added in the 1400s, when the walls and vaults were also decorated with paintings, attributed to the so-called Fjälkinge group of medieval church painters.
The church changed considerably in the nineteenth century. Between 1848 and 1854 it was extended southwards and given a new appearance both inside and out, with most of the medieval vaulting removed except in the chancel and tower. The altar was moved to the north wall, where a new apse was built, and a gallery with a new organ was erected against the new south wall. This arrangement did not last: a further thorough renovation in 1907–09 restored the church closer to its earlier form, reinstating the east–west orientation, removing the apse, returning the altar to the chancel, and adding a new brick cross-vault ceiling. Much of what visitors see today dates from this early twentieth-century rebuilding.
The altarpiece is a copy of Carl Bloch's painting of the Resurrection, whose original hangs in the Kongens Billedkammer at Frederiksborg Castle in Hillerød, Denmark; side panels depict the apostles Paul, with his sword, and Peter, with his key. Behind the altarpiece, medieval lime-wash paintings from the mid-1400s have been uncovered, showing the Last Judgement as described in the Gospel of Matthew, with Christ as heavenly king separating the blessed from the damned, surrounded by apostles, John the Baptist, the Virgin Mary and trumpeting angels.
A further notable object is the triumphal crucifix, dated to the late 1200s or early 1300s, one of the older furnishings to have survived the church's many rebuildings.
The church has had a succession of organs, the earliest recorded instrument dating from the 1670s. The current organ was built in 1957 by Olof Hammarberg of Gothenburg, with a case designed by the architect Torsten Leon-Nilson of Ignaberga.
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Araslövs församling
Araslövs församling
Önnestads kyrka is a parish church in the village of Önnestad, around 13 kilometres west of Kristianstad in Skåne. Built in the Romanesque style, probably around the year 1200, it belongs to the Church of Sweden and has undergone several significant transformations over the centuries.
Byagatan 22, 291 73, Önnestad
Explore this church: Önnestads kyrkaChurch information: Svenska kyrkan, Platser · CC BY 4.0. Each church page includes its credits and visiting notes.
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View church details: Anderslövs kyrkaSources, credits and English adaptations are identified on each church page. Provider data: Svenska kyrkan, Platser · CC BY 4.0.
Provider catalogue data: Svenska kyrkan, Platser, CC BY 4.0. Separately credited descriptions retain their stated source and licence terms. Catalogue and visiting data reformatted from the provider. The English guide combines and abridges separately credited sources below.
Provider record updated: 30 Jun 2026. This is not an independent verification date.
Source record: d7455a21-42fd-4770-a9c0-675ec508b40a
This English guide combines, abridges and translates the sources below with AI assistance, with editorial contributions by Churches in Sweden. It has not been independently verified. The adapted guide text is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Photographs and map data have their own terms.