Torstuna kyrka

The original medieval church on this site was badly damaged by a lightning strike in 1723, and although it was rebuilt by 1731, that structure soon revealed serious flaws. By the end of the century the parish had decided on a bold solution: building a new church around the old one, demolishing the earlier building piece by piece as the new walls rose around it.

The result, completed during the 1790s, is a neoclassical building on a rectangular plan, with a chancel narrower than the nave and flanked by two annexes, one housing the sacristy. Large windows give the interior a notably light, airy character. Inside, four pillars divide the nave into three aisles, with a taller, barrel-vaulted central aisle.

Several notable furnishings date from the church's early years. An altarpiece by the sculptor Burchardt Precht was acquired in 1802, the same year a new pulpit by Pehr Ljung was installed - though the older 1650 pulpit, attributed to Hans Hebel, was retained rather than discarded. The building continued to evolve over the nineteenth century: a new metal roof was added in 1831, the tower was rebuilt in 1850–1851, and the church was rendered inside and out in 1863, with repainting and gilding of the interior completed by 1872.

Among the older fittings is a limestone font of ciborium type dating from the first half of the thirteenth century, and a wooden Madonna sculpture from the second half of the fifteenth century, carved from local Mälardalen timber - both surviving from the medieval church that once stood on the same ground. A curiosity sometimes pointed out to visitors is a set of long poles once used by a church officer to nudge dozing worshippers awake during services.

The church organ has a long and layered history, beginning with a positive organ built in 1738 and moved into the new church in 1797; it was subsequently altered and enlarged by various organ builders over the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries, culminating in a significant rebuild in 1939. A thorough restoration of the interior took place in 1935, though without major structural changes.