Härads kyrka

The church began as the western part of the present nave, with timber roof structures dated by dendrochronology to the late twelfth century. An attached tower was never completed as originally planned and was instead absorbed into the nave. Around the end of the 1400s the church was given brick vaults, and the nave is thought to have been extended eastwards to create the present chancel, with a porch and sacristy added at this time.

A tower begun in 1625 proved to be in poor condition and was demolished in 1685. In 1758 a north transept was built, replacing the medieval sacristy, and the old west tower room became the new sacristy. Later works included a 19th-century refurbishment in a neo-Gothic style, largely reversed during a 1937 restoration that also opened the present west entrance. Further changes to the internal layout, seating and sacristy arrangements followed in 1980 and 2004.

Among the church's most striking possessions are three carved and painted altar cabinets attributed to Swedish workshops around 1500, depicting scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary, the Passion of Christ, and the life of Mary Magdalene respectively. These sit alongside a carved triumphal crucifix thought to date from the first half of the 1300s, now mounted on the north wall.

One of the most unusual objects is a carved sandstone reliquary chest with a ridged lid, thought to have been made on Gotland in the 1170s or 1180s and attributed to a workshop known as Majestatis. Traces of now-lost carved figures survive on its ends, alongside depictions of Christ and the Virgin, with apostles along the roof ridge. The church's sandstone font, decorated with a simple rope-moulding, is believed to date from around 1200.

The chancel floor holds a limestone memorial slab to a seventeenth-century army quartermaster and his wife, decorated with evangelist symbols and family coats of arms, alongside funerary hatchments for later members of the same family. A pulpit dating from the mid-1600s was moved to its present position when the north transept was built. The church's organ has been rebuilt more than once, most recently in 1993, incorporating the case and some pipework from an 1860 instrument.