Barlingbo kyrka

The church was built in stages during the 13th century, replacing an earlier stone church whose remains have been found beneath the present structure. The chancel, an unusual apse-like form with a four-sided projection housing the altar, was built first, followed by the sacristy, then the nave walls around the middle of the century, with the tower and nave vaulting completing the building by the 1280s. The result is a church that rises in three visible steps from the eastern chancel to the tower in the west, clearly visible above the surrounding farmland. Unusually, the tower's bell storey was not built to full height but is set within the lower part of the spire.

The main entrance is the large Gothic south portal, with carved, perspectivally arranged arches and a gable rising above the eaves line. A second, now walled-up Gothic portal survives on the north side of the tower, alongside a Romanesque doorway on the south side of the chancel. Inside, robust arches support bold cross-vaults spanning the length of the interior, and several windows retain unusual figurative and ornamental stained glass dated to around 1280.

The walls and vaults carry medieval wall paintings from several periods, including a series of apostle images around the altar that is considered unusual for Gotland. Some of these paintings had been overpainted and were uncovered during a minor restoration in 1948.

Among the church's furnishings, the large triumphal crucifix—featuring a wheel cross and evangelist symbols at the ends of the cross-arms—is dated to the 1240s and attributed to the so-called Tingstäde Master. The richly carved font in the tower chamber dates from the 12th century and is regarded as one of the most notable on Gotland. The pulpit, dated 1673, stands on a medieval side altar, and the sandstone altarpiece was made in 1683. The church bell was cast in the early 15th century.

The church has had a succession of organs, from an 1859 instrument by Olof Niclas Lindqvist through a 1914 organ by Olof Hammarberg to the current mechanical organ built in 1971 by Anders Perssons Orgelbyggeri.