Sandby kyrka

A medieval stone church once stood here, built beside the farming village a little way from the sea. Records from a 1634 survey of Öland's churches show it as a twin-gabled building with towers at both the east and west ends, topped by a tall upper storey used for secular purposes—a common defensive feature on the island. The foundations of this earlier building still lie beneath the floor of the present church.

In 1782 the medieval church was altered: its vaults and pillars were removed, along with the upper section of the east tower, and the west tower was closed off with a timber wall facing east. The result was apparently unsatisfactory, and discussions began about merging the parish with neighbouring Gårdby rather than repairing the building further. In the end the parishes chose to build afresh, and a proposal for a joint new church was eventually turned down by the King in 1858. Construction of a new church proceeded regardless, beginning in 1860 under master builder Peter Isberg, whose designs were revised by Johan Fredrik Åbom of the Office of the Royal Superintendent. The new building was completed in 1863, a light and spacious hall church in a Gothic-influenced, neoclassical style, with a rectangular nave, a three-sided chancel to the east, a sacristy to the north, and a west tower crowned with a lantern and tall spire.

Among the furnishings is a font carved from Gotland sandstone, dating from the first half of the thirteenth century—much older than the current building and presumably retained from the earlier church. The main altarpiece, painted in 1892 by Gustaf Lundqvist (a priest who also worked as a painter), depicts a New Testament scene; an older altarpiece from 1794, by Jonas Berggren, hangs on the south wall. Berggren is also credited with the pulpit, reached from the sacristy.

Other notable items include a semicircular altar rail decorated with gilded symbols and a wrought-iron candle tree. A votive ship, presented to the church in the later nineteenth century by a former sailor and farmer, recalls the parish's seafaring connections. The church's organ was originally built in 1876 by Åkerman & Lund of Stockholm, and rebuilt in 1948 behind its earlier case using much of the original pipework.