Rumskulla kyrka

A wooden church stood at Rumskulla from at least 1320, built of horizontal logs with shingled walls, a narrower chancel and a stone sacristy. Interior paintings were added in 1418, later whitewashed over in the mid-eighteenth century on the advice of a bishop who considered them unsuitable, and replaced with Baroque decoration. As the parish grew, the old church proved too small even after enlargement, prompting plans for a completely new building.

Preparations for a stone church began as early as 1792, though work stalled for years before a final decision to proceed was taken in 1832. Construction was carried out around the standing medieval church so that services could continue throughout the building period, an arrangement that lasted until the old timber structure was finally demolished in 1835. The new church held its first service that October and was consecrated in 1838. Only a few boards and timbers from the medieval building are said to survive.

The current church is built in a neoclassical style, with rendered stone and brick walls painted yellow, entrances on the long sides and through the west tower, and a rounded chancel to the east housing the sacristy. The tower carries an open, white-painted timber lantern topped with a gilded cross. The roof, originally iron plate, was replaced in 1970 with lacquered aluminium sheeting made to resemble the old material — reportedly one of the first such uses in a Swedish church roof.

The most notable furnishing is a fifteenth-century altar cabinet rescued from the old church, showing the Crucifixion flanked by Mary and John, with female saints and, on the inner doors, the twelve apostles; the outer faces depict Saint Olof and Saint Erik. It was placed on the altar in 1904 after undergoing a restoration described as heavy-handed. The pulpit dates from the 1830s, contemporary with the new church, and a brass font was donated in 1683, cast at the brass works in Norrköping. Almost all the church silver was stolen in 1851, apart from a set kept at the rectory; replacement communion vessels were bought that same year.

The church has had a sequence of organs since the seventeenth century, and the present instrument, built in 1926 by E A Setterquist & Son of Örebro, retains the façade of its 1840 predecessor. Two bells hang in the tower, cast in 1769 and 1913 respectively.