Balingsta kyrka

The original church consisted of a nave, chancel and apse, typical of Romanesque churches of the period, which lacked towers. A tower was added to the west wall of the nave in the first half of the 1200s, and its sound openings still retain their Romanesque character. The tower was raised by around two metres in the 1400s, while the present tower cap dates from the 1700s, after an earlier spire blew down. The sacristy dates from the 1300s and the porch was added in the 1400s.

By the mid-1800s the medieval church had fallen into disrepair, and the parish disagreed for years over whether to repair it or build anew. A new brick church, designed by Adrian Crispin Peterson, was built on the opposite side of the road and consecrated in 1872, after which the old church was abandoned. Left in use only as part of the churchyard, the medieval building deteriorated further: the nave vaults collapsed, the sacristy vault was removed as unsafe, and parts of the tower and porch fell into ruin.

Interest in restoring the old church was revived after 1916, when a new priest took up the cause with support from the Archbishop, and a local benefactor funded the work. Restoration under Sigurd Curman took place between 1917 and 1919, repairing the walls, reconstructing the vaults in the chancel and sacristy, and fitting a new flat wooden ceiling to the nave in the style believed original. Decorative paintings were added by Filip Månsson, and Olle Hjortzberg painted a large image of Christ enthroned in the apse; medieval wall paintings were conserved and partly reconstructed. The abandoned brick church was later demolished in 1934, though its stone foundations remain on the site. A further restoration in 1961 saw Hjortzberg's painting, by then damaged by damp, limewashed over, and some earlier reconstructed sections of medieval painting removed.

Fragments of medieval wall paintings, thought to date from around 1450 and attributed to a workshop associated with the so-called Strängnäs school, survive in the chancel vault, on the nave walls and in the sacristy, though much of the original scheme has been lost. Surviving scenes include the meeting of Mary and Elizabeth and the Nativity, while old photographs recorded further scenes, including an Annunciation, since destroyed, suggesting the paintings once formed a fuller cycle on the childhood of Christ.

Among the furnishings, the pulpit was made in 1658, combining late Renaissance and early Baroque style, with figures of Christ and the four evangelists. The chancel holds a funerary armorial to a court marshal who died in 1611, and a chandelier bearing the date 1685 that came originally from the now-abandoned Fittja church, via Wik Castle. Several medieval grave slabs survive, along with a pair of medieval brass candlesticks and bells recast over the centuries, the oldest dating in origin to 1526.