Åtvids Gamla kyrka

The church was built in the late Middle Ages, when mining activity in the area was at its height, and the parish itself is recorded as early as the 1300s, suggesting an even older predecessor once stood here. By the late nineteenth century the congregation had outgrown the building, and a new church was constructed nearby. In 1887 the medieval church was deliberately demolished down to a ruin, with the nave roof removed, leaving only the stone walls standing.

Remarkably, reconstruction began in 1954 and the church was reconsecrated in 1957, largely thanks to substantial donations from the industrialist Elof Ericsson and his family, along with the local firm AB Åtvidabergs Industrier. The rebuilding, led by Professor Erik Lundberg, involved a fairly free recreation of the medieval interior, though the small pointed-arch windows could be faithfully reconstructed from surviving evidence. The church has a rectangular nave with a narrower, straight-ended chancel, a porch built onto the north wall, and a sacristy and burial chapel to the north and northeast of the chancel. The burial chapel, dating from 1726, is built in a Baroque style that contrasts with the church's rougher, unplastered stone walls and stepped gables. Inside, the nave is covered by a clover-leaf shaped wooden barrel vault, while the star vault above the chancel survives from medieval times.},{"paragraph"

Of particular interest to visitors are the wall and ceiling paintings, created around 1620 by an artist known only as "Matz Målare", who also worked at Vårdsberg and Hägerstad churches. The four vaults depict Old Testament scenes including the Creation and Fall of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, the story of Joseph and his brothers, and figures such as King David and various prophets and apostles, offering a rich visual narrative across the church's ceiling and walls.

Other notable furnishings include an altarpiece and a triumphal crucifix, both made by Johan Johansson Werner and largely funded by Nils Assersson Mannersköld, whose funeral hatchment is also preserved in the church. The pulpit, made by the workshop of Wedulin in Hjo, was a gift from Frans Evald Fock, whose burial chapel lies by the eastern wall of the chancel. A chancel bell dating from the 1600s hangs on the north wall, and a modern altar carpet was designed by the textile artist Barbro Nilsson.

The church's organ has its own layered history: an early positive organ was installed in 1704, replaced in 1751 by a instrument built by Jonas Wistenius of Linköping. Parts of this organ, including its façade pipework, were dismantled and stored when the church fell into ruin, and were later reconstructed as part of the 1950s restoration, incorporating some original pipework alongside new additions. A separate bell tower stands east of the churchyard, built in the 1750s to replace an earlier structure; it houses two bells cast in 1753 and 1796, which were never transferred to the newer parish church.