Kastlösa Church
Church environment
Kastlösa church is located on the eastern fault line near the western country road in the northern part of Kastlösa village. Immediately west of the cemetery is Kastlösa “stiftsgård” (diocesan study center).
When the new church was built in the 1850s, then a new vicarage was also built and the old one was moved to the other side of the road and became the first school in Kastlösa.
In conjunction with the building of a new church in the 1850s, a new vicarage was built and the old one was moved to the other side of the road and became the first school in Kastlösa.
The church
Around the 1850’s the old pack-saddle church from the 12th century had became too small for the parish. The old church had consisted of a nave, chancel and an eastern tower, and a western tower had been added during the 13th century
The new church in Kastlösa was built after drawings by Adolf Johan Hawerman in 1855 and master builder was Peter Isberg from Glömminge. In the minutes from the parish meeting it is written that the church was built “comparatively cheap because most of the work and the execution were carried out by the parishioners themselves“. It came to be built north of the old church.
The new church is made up of rectangular structure, divided into three naves, with chancel in the east, the sacristy in the north and a tower in the west.
The whitewashed walls are covered by a pitched roof and the tower is crowned by a lantern with a short spire. Almost one hundred years after the consecration of the church was major interior renovations performed for the Jubilee.
The nave was transformed in a uniform manner, and got among other things, a flat inner ceiling. Bench interior, the gallery and the pulpit are from the same date.
Memorial grove
The memorial grove was opened in 2000 and is built on the north side of the church. It is defined by a circular hedge of white cedar with an opening in the west.
From the beginning it had an opening on each side in the north and the south, but has later been changed to get a more confined area.
In the eastern part of the grove there is a planting and an older limestone cross. In front of the planting is a stand for vases and to the left a bench where you can sit down.
Buildings
In the northeast corner as part of the cemetery wall is an older materials storehouse, built around 1805, with whitewashed facades and tiled roofs. The house has over a period been used as a morgue but now it’s only storage.
Other
Outside the materials storehouse west wall has a place for older gravestones been arranged, and the oldest one is from the 17th century.
Smidesgrindarna från 1856 skall vara av den öländske konstsmeden Jonas Peter Dahlgren som under 1800-talet svarat för många vackra kyrkogårdsgrindar på Öland. En ättling – Lars Peter Dalgren – smed från Bredinge malm sover lugnt på kyrkogården.
The Forging Gates from 1856 is believed be of the blacksmith Jonas Peter Dahlgren from Öland, who in the 19th century produced many beautiful cemetery gates on Öland. A descendant – Lars Peter Dalgren – blacksmith from “Bredinge” rests peacefully in the cemetery.
In Block A south of the church is a well made of limestone’s.
Source: Kalmar Läns Museum, Kalmar County Museum
Translation: Visitoland.com