Okome kyrka

A church has stood on this site since at least the 1100s. The medieval building, recorded in a late-eighteenth-century drawing by the antiquarian-minded parish priest Anders Petersson Widberg, had a rectangular nave, a narrower chancel with a rounded apse, and a timber tower to the west. Over the centuries it was altered repeatedly: new pews and flooring in 1737, painted ceiling decoration in 1759, and a thorough remodelling in 1816 that removed much of its medieval character, enlarged the windows, and saw eleven coffins found beneath the floor near the altar reburied outside. By the 1880s the congregation had outgrown the building, and in 1890 it was demolished to make way for the present church, completed the following year.

Most of the old church's fittings were sold off following demolition, despite a royal condition that they be carefully preserved. Several pieces, including a richly carved altarpiece, a canopied pulpit and screen with images of the apostles, were dispersed to museums and private hands, with some later traced to a museum in Lund. A crucifix, an iron-bound chest and a portrait of a former vicar disappeared without trace. Remarkably, a hexagonal canopy once removed from above the pulpit was bought back in 1936, and the 1636 altarpiece itself was recovered and reinstalled during the 1960s restoration, incorporated into a new altar in matching style.

The most notable survivor from the medieval church is the font, carved from sandstone in seven parts and dated to the late 1200s or early 1300s. Its four-lobed bowl is decorated with scenes from the childhood of Christ, and the base rests on four plinths carved as beast-like figures. The seventeenth-century pulpit also survived the rebuilding, though local tradition — unverified — holds it was war booty from the Thirty Years' War.

The 1960–1961 restoration, designed by architect Johannes Olivegren, reshaped the interior distinctively: rooms for the sacristy and gatherings were built beneath the gallery, a two-metre strip was left clear around the walls to mark the outline of the old medieval church and serve as a processional path, and new pews were fitted with tall candle-bearing end panels. A painted screen with fourteen images of Christ, Mary and the apostles, echoing figures from the medieval church, was placed before the gallery.

The church has had several organs. Its first, built in 1864 by Carl Nilsson of Ullared, was sold when the old church was demolished and moved to Älvsered. A two-manual organ by Salomon Molander followed in 1891; its facade and some pipework were retained when a new mechanical organ was installed in 1980.