Östra Tollstad church

Church

In the 1100s or early 1200s, a stone church was built in Östra Tollstad. The church was demolished in the mid-1880s and the current church was built 250 meters southwest of the old church. The cemetery is still in use.

In connection with the demolition, the old furniture was to be sold. Anton Ridderstad from the Östgötha Museum was contacted and asked to come to Östra Tollstad to determine what "can and may be sold or not and to set the price for what is sellable." The church meeting had also decided that anything that could not be sold would be handed over to the museum.

The new church has undergone several renovations, and during the second half of the 1950s, some major changes were made that still characterize the church space today. The altarpiece from 1813, depicting the birth of Jesus, was painted by the most sought-after church painter of the time, Pehr Hörberg. On one wall of the nave hangs an altar cupboard from the 1400s.

The ethnographer and author Bengt Danielsson is buried in the cemetery. He participated in Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki expedition in 1947. In Sweden, he is also known for the book and TV series Villervalle in the South Seas, which aired on Swedish Television during the 1960s. Danielsson's father grew up on a farm in Östra Tollestad, but he himself never lived here.