Sya kyrka

A stone church stood on this site in the Middle Ages, with a vaulted interior later replaced by a painted timber ceiling. By the mid-1700s the parish needed a larger building, and rather than extend the old church it was decided to construct a new one. The present church was completed in 1774 under diocesan builders Petter Andersson Lindstrand and Måns Månsson Lindgren, incorporating part of the medieval north wall into the new, wider and longer structure. A tower and sacristy were added in 1863, and the interior was reshaped by a 1933 restoration led by architect Johannes Dahl of Tranås.

Among the church's oldest furnishings is a crucifix dating from the fourteenth century, saved from the earlier building. An altar cabinet from the late fifteenth century, made in northern Germany, is another survival; it depicts Saint Martin of Tours at its centre, flanked by Saint Agnes with a lamb and Mary Magdalene, with side reliefs showing scenes from the Christmas story and the life of Mary. The cabinet was repainted in 1697 and again in 1900.

The altarpiece, showing the institution of the Eucharist, was painted in 1826 by Bengt Frökenberg, a master painter from Linköping, and was donated by a local farming couple from Hydinge Västergård. A finely carved limestone font, made in 1658 by the noted Skänninge craftsman Michael Hacke, bears his own inscribed signature and remains one of the church's most admired objects.

The church bells have an eventful history: the larger bell, cast in 1604 and inscribed with a Latin phrase invoking divine protection, once cracked and was later mended by soldering. The smaller bell, given to the church around 1680, was recast several times during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Both bells hung first in a wooden tower, then a freestanding belfry, before being moved into the current tower in 1863.

A wooden memorial tablet in the sacristy commemorates Frans L'Orange, a language teacher of French origin who, according to the inscription, served with the Swedish army in Poland, was captured at the Battle of Poltava, and eventually reached Sweden in 1720, later settling and marrying in the district. The church also has a mechanical organ built in 1967, whose case survives from an earlier 1866 instrument.