Norrala kyrka

An earlier medieval church stood here from the twelfth century, a so-called klövsadelkyrka with a central tower and an eastern tower. That building suffered a serious fire in 1807, though a number of furnishings were rescued from the flames. Over the preceding centuries it had been enlarged and altered repeatedly, gaining new vaults, an extended sacristy, and a succession of towers, including one destroyed by lightning in 1549 and its eventual replacement.

Following the fire, a new church was built between 1807 and 1810 to designs associated with Johan Christian Loëll and Fredrik Magnus Piper, though it was not consecrated until 1816, by Archbishop Jacob Axelsson Lindblom. The church has a rectangular plan and a broken (mansard-type) roof, with a western tower topped by a lantern. Notably, the walls of the old church's east tower were incorporated into the present sacristy, giving a tangible physical link to the medieval building.

In the churchyard stands a small building known as Staffans stupa, raised in memory of a figure remembered as the apostle of Hälsingland, sometimes called Staffan or Stenfinn; despite the name, it has no connection to the Buddhist stupa and instead functioned as a small burial chapel. Beside its northern wall stands a rune stone, the only one surviving in southern Hälsingland, making the churchyard a site of interest well beyond the church building itself.

Among the church's furnishings is a twelfth-century reliquary shrine of gilded and enamelled copper on a wooden core, its lid decorated with an image of Christ in Majesty and symbols of the four evangelists, encircled by a Latin inscription. A brass christening basin dates from the sixteenth century, and a silver wafer dish was donated to the church in 1651. Several medieval wooden sculptures once kept here are now held at the Hälsingland Museum in Hudiksvall, so visitors should not expect to see them in the church itself.

The church has had a succession of organs reaching back to 1762, including instruments from Nora and later from Hannover, reflecting changing tastes over two centuries. The current organ was built in 1973 by Walter Thür Orgelbyggen, retaining a façade from 1822 with speaking front pipes; a smaller choir organ dates from 1958.