Östra Stenby kyrka

The church is thought to have originated in the 12th century as a small stone building with a square nave and narrower chancel. A fragment of this earliest wall survives near the sacristy entrance, and the medieval tower may also date from this period, though its thick walls seem never to have held bells. Later in the 1200s, transepts were added to north and south, an unusual feature for a church of this modest size in the diocese.

During the 15th century the church was enlarged eastward and southward and given vaulted ceilings, reputedly in 1441 according to a since-lost inscription. This work turned it into a two-aisled space supported by two heavy central pillars. Only the vault in the north transept survives from this phase. Fragments of mid-15th-century wall paintings depicting scenes from the Passion were recorded in a watercolour made in 1847, though the paintings themselves no longer survive.

The most significant transformation came in 1682–1684, commissioned by Baron Gustaf Kurck, a member of the Privy Council and owner of nearby Ållonö. The medieval chancel was demolished and the church extended by some nine metres with a new three-sided east end; the old central pillars were removed and new vaults sprung across the full width of the nave. Kurck also built a family burial vault beneath the chancel. In 1751 a new pointed spire, built by the Linköping master builder Petter Frimodig and painted by the portraitist Jöns Pilo, replaced the earlier tower roof and bell-frame.

By the 1840s the church had fallen into poor repair, prompting a major rebuilding in 1858–1860 to designs by the architect Johan Fredrik Åbom. The asymmetrical medieval tower was removed and replaced on the church's central axis, the nave was widened to a uniform width, the old sacristy demolished, and the south transept lengthened to match the north, giving the building the symmetrical plan seen today. Further interior renovations followed in 1912–1913 and 1939, when older fittings, including an earlier altarpiece, were returned to the church interior and the south transept was converted first into a burial chapel and later, in 1987, into a winter worship space.

Among the furnishings are a brass font made in 1700 by Norrköping craftsman Daniel Wulff, and a pulpit donated in 1685 by Gustaf Kurck, later painted in 1738. The altarpiece, from Elbing, was donated in 1726. Perhaps most striking to visitors are the runestones: one stands inside the church, while six more line the churchyard path leading to the tower entrance. These stones were discovered in the foundations of the old medieval tower when it was demolished in 1858–1860, later built into the south transept walls with their inscriptions visible, and finally removed and placed in the churchyard during the 1939 renovation.