Skällinge kyrka

The present church was erected in 1680 on the remains of an older stone church of medieval origin that had itself been destroyed by fire. Misfortune struck again, with further fires recorded in 1772 and in 1860, after which the building was restored. The tower at the west end was added later, in 1897, in a Gothic Revival style with a pointed spire, giving the whitewashed church its current silhouette. The nave is rectangular with a semicircular apse to the east, and large round-arched windows light the interior, which reflects the restrained neoclassical taste of the late seventeenth century.

The church's most treasured possession is its font, carved from soapstone in three sections and standing 95 centimetres high. It is thought to date from around 1250, making it by far the oldest object in the building, though its exact origin is unknown and it does not closely resemble other fonts found in western Sweden. A second, older font of black granite, with only the bowl and base surviving, is also kept in the church and is linked to a known medieval quarry at Fagared.

When fire swept through the church, the altarpiece and pulpit were saved and remain fine examples of late Baroque craftsmanship, both dating from 1697. The pulpit carries wooden relief carvings of Christ and the four evangelists, while the altar painting itself was added a little later, in the early eighteenth century. Both pieces underwent thorough restoration in the late nineteenth century.//The two bells in the tower were recast at the end of that century.//An organ was installed behind an 1888 facade, and though its mechanism has since been renewed, the case remains from that period.

A more recent phase of work saw the tower roof replaced and the exterior refreshed around 2010, followed by an interior renovation a few years later. Outside, the church grounds include a nineteenth-century clergy house, a twentieth-century parish hall, and a stone stile gate to the north-west, all forming part of the wider historic setting around the church.