Näshults kyrka

An earlier medieval timber church stood on the site, its age uncertain, of which only the stone-built sacristy survives. By 1729 that older building was found to be badly decayed, with leaning walls, a rotten roof and long-standing storm damage, and it was replaced in 1732 by a new timber church built by master builder Johan Sandahl of Eksjö, a design shared with the nearby churches at Frödinge and Kråksmåla. The new church was consecrated in 1735 by Bishop Gustaf Adolf Humble. A freestanding wooden bell tower, thought to date from around 1742, houses three bells, the smallest reputedly medieval, possibly cast around 1400.

Inside, the church reflects the decorative taste of the Baroque period. The flat wooden ceiling and the organ gallery were painted in 1765 by Magnus Wicander of Västervik with cloud-wreathed figures depicting the Ascension, the Transfiguration and Christ in Gethsemane, surrounded by trumpeting angels and symbols of Faith, Hope and Charity.

The most striking feature is the richly carved late Gothic altar cabinet in the chancel, dated to the 15th century and attributed to the workshop of Bernt Notke in Lübeck. According to tradition it was brought home as war booty from Poland by Captain Lars Fixenhielm of Kullebo, one of Charles XII's Caroleans, though this account rests on local tradition rather than documented proof. Its central panel shows Saint Eric, the suffering Christ and Saint Catherine of Alexandria, flanked by carved apostles and saints, and framed by drapery paintings by the sculptor Sven Segervall of Växjö.

The pulpit is itself a curiosity: originally a Renaissance piece from the 1600s, it was given an elaborate Baroque dress of carvings by Segervall in 1736, including figures of the four evangelists and a crowning figure of Christ with a victory banner. Elsewhere in the church a crucifix on the north wall is dated to the 1200s, and a small cabinet holds a painted image of the Madonna from the mid-1300s. Funerary hatchments commemorate Lars Fixenhielm and Peder Silfversparre of Salebo, alongside memorial tablets recalling the church's construction.

Among the furnishings, a communion chalice from the 1400s is counted among the church's most valued treasures, together with a gilded silver paten of 1734 and a silver flagon of 1791. The church's organ, installed in 1983 by builder Nils-Olof Berg, retains a case from an earlier 1744 instrument, continuing a long line of organs recorded here since the 18th century.