Östad kyrka

The church occupies a medieval site that is thought to have had one, or possibly two, earlier churches. A stone church built here around 1690 partly reused masonry from an older building, and it gained a tower with two bells in 1777. That church was destroyed by fire in 1945, an event that melted the bells and destroyed much of the interior, though the font, altarpiece and pulpit were rescued.

The present church, completed in 1946 to designs by architect Axel Forssén, was built on the surviving 1690s outer walls, and its interior largely reproduces the appearance of its predecessor. The exterior is whitewashed with segmental-arched window openings and slate roofs, and the tower is topped by an octagonal lantern and a weathervane bearing the date 1945. The current bells were recast from around 500 kg of metal salvaged from the fire, itself partly derived from a medieval bell, so the bronze in the tower today still contains traces of medieval origin.

The sandstone font, of the so-called Siene type, is the oldest object in the church, dated to the first half or middle of the 13th century; it was notable enough to be displayed at the Gothenburg Exhibition of 1923. The altarpiece canvas, painted by Johan Ross in 1729 and depicting the Crucifixion, survived the blaze and was later refitted into a new frame. The elaborately carved pulpit and its canopy, made by Michel Schmidt in 1715, were likewise saved and restored, and carry carved figures of the four evangelists along with religious inscriptions and the monogram of King Karl XII.

Other furnishings reflect the church's long history and its 1945 rebuilding: a communion chalice and paten said to have been donated in 1655, a sick-communion set dated 1826, and a silver wafer box presented in 1945 by American airmen in gratitude for the parish's kindness after a wartime air accident nearby. Two carved angel figures that once adorned the pre-fire organ were also rescued and now feature on the church's current organ, built by Nordfors & Co of Lidköping.