Stenåsa kyrka

Archaeological traces found beneath the present floor suggest the earliest church here was a timber building, possibly dating from the 11th century. During the 12th century this was replaced, in stages, by a stone church: first a chancel and apse built against the old timber nave, then a new stone nave, with a west tower added a little later, following a pattern common on Öland. A stout central pillar was built into the nave to support the tower's east wall. By the mid-13th century the church had been lengthened with a new chancel with a straight east end, vaulted with two groups of ribs, and lit by a three-part window that once held medieval stained glass; painted decoration in the window recess is said to have depicted Saint Olof and Mary Magdalene, and the church may have been one of several dedicated to that saint.

As the medieval building became too small for the growing congregation, discussions about rebuilding dragged on for decades. Plans finally took shape in 1829, when the architect Samuel Enander of the Office of the Superintendent of Buildings drew up designs in an Empire-influenced style. Building work on the site of the medieval church began in 1830 and was largely complete by 1831, with the new church formally consecrated in 1838. Built of limestone, it is a light, hall-church type building with a nave, a straight-ended chancel to the east, a sacristy to the north and a west tower topped by an octagonal lantern housing the bells.

Inside, the barrel-vaulted ceiling is covered with rich decorative painting added in 1902, giving the otherwise restrained neoclassical interior considerable colour and detail. Among the furnishings, a medieval font of the so-called 'paradise' type, carved with scenes in a scalloped bowl, is one of the few objects to have survived from the earlier medieval church, along with an old altar slab. The altarpiece, made in the 1760s and later extended, has at its centre a 19th-century painting of Christ in Gethsemane, itself a copy after a German original, surrounded by earlier carved figures and ornament.

A notable survival is the church's votive ship, a three-masted model probably dating from the 17th century and counted among the oldest such votive ships on Öland — a reminder of the seafaring life of this coastal parish. The pulpit, with its sounding board, dates from 1667 and was later enriched with gilded figures of the four evangelists. Much of the enclosed box-pew seating and the shaped organ gallery also survive from the church's building period, giving the interior a strong sense of continuity despite the many changes over the centuries.