Varnums kyrka

The church's origins lie in the 1100s, with the oldest surviving stonework generally placed in the western part of the building. In the 1400s the church was extended eastward, and its entrance was unusually placed on the north side of the nave rather than the more common west or south.

The building took much of its present form in 1745, when the chancel was lengthened and given a three-sided end matching the width of the nave, and a sacristy was added to the south. A timber addition was built onto the west end the same year, and in 1778 a distinctive wooden bell tower was raised above it; this structure, separate from the main worship space, now also houses an old hearse once used by the parish.

Inside, the church feels considerably smaller and more intimate than its exterior suggests, since the western timber tower structure is not part of the congregational room itself; only under a hundred people can be accommodated at a time. The mirror-vaulted ceiling and much of the furnishing reflect an eighteenth-century character. A modern colour scheme of white, grey-blue and pale green sets off a strikingly graphic patterned carpet in the choir, while the pulpit and the carved altarpiece are described as particular visual highlights.

Among the church's older treasures is a two-piece sandstone font from the 1200s, carved with relief arcading showing crosses, a fleur-de-lis and a bird — a rare survival of medieval craftsmanship. The altarpiece was carved in 1694 by Gustaf Kihlman, and the pulpit dates from 1708, the work of Anders Ekberg. A mid-1200s triumphal crucifix also survives in the church, while a twelfth-century oak Madonna figure, along with another crucifix and a fragment of a very old altar cabinet, are now kept at the Borås museum rather than in the church itself.

A memorial tablet at the back of the nave commemorates soldiers from Varnum and the surrounding parishes who fell in conflict, offering visitors a quiet reminder to value peace. The church's original organ, installed in 1961, was dismantled in 2014; only its case remains, with the instrument itself now electronic.