Skeppsås kyrka

The church was probably built in the later 12th century, making it one of the older parish churches in the area. As the congregation grew, the small building proved too cramped, and in the mid-18th century a spacious transept was added on the south side, following the construction of a sacristy on the north side in 1748. At the same time, the nave's medieval crossed vaults, added in the last century of the Middle Ages, were taken down.

The church today consists of a rectangular nave with a narrower, straight-ended chancel to the east, the 18th-century sacristy to the north, the roomy south transept, and a ridge turret over the western part of the nave. Built of limestone and granite rubble, the walls are rendered in white with smooth-plastered surrounds, and the roofs and turret are covered in wood shingle. Two entrances serve the building, one at the west gable and one on the south side of the transept.

Inside, the church reflects several building phases, with the most significant changes dating from the mid-18th century and the 1860s. Among its medieval treasures are a triumphal crucifix from the late 13th century, decorated with symbols of the four evangelists, and a north German altarpiece from the 15th century depicting a Calvary group with Christ, Mary, Joseph and the two apostles named James. A carved image of Mary with the crowned Christ child, dating from the 15th century, and an older limestone font also survive from the medieval church. A door with wrought ironwork, thought to be from the 13th century, is said to have come from an entrance on the south side.

The present pulpit is a comparatively late addition, made by a craftsman from Lönsås, though the hourglass mounted on it is considerably older. The earlier 17th-century pulpit, along with a wooden font, is preserved in the so-called bell house, a separate building in the churchyard that may date back to medieval times as a tithe barn, and which later served as the parish grain store for over a century. Since 1912 the two church bells have hung in its upper storey, having previously been housed in a freestanding bell frame in the churchyard.

The sacristy holds further items of interest, including a bridal canopy incorporating a richly patterned 14th-century Italian silk textile, and a 15th-century chasuble embroidered with scenes from the Passion. The churchyard contains many gravestones from the early 19th century still in their original positions, largely marking the graves of local farmers and smallholders; among them is the modest memorial to former vicar Per David Widegren, known for his early 19th-century descriptive work on Östergötland.