The church of W. Sallerup, about 20 km north of Lund, is one of the most interesting churches of Scania. Very likely it was consecrated by the Archbishop of Lund in the twelfth century. It was built in the Romanesque style with a nave, a choir and from the beginning there was probably a tower too. In the fourteenth century the eastern part of the church attained its present extension. At the same time the first vaults were constructed. The northern part of the choir, perhaps from the fifteenth century, was pulled down about 1950 and a new one was built. Very likely the church from the beginning had a connection with a residential estate in the surroundings, Ellinge. At the beginning of the fourteenth century the church was connected for a long time with the cathedral chapter of Lund as a part of the reward of a member of the chapter, “a kanik”. Thus, he became a principal, “patronus”, of this church.
The mural paintings of the church from the Middle-Age are very notable. In different layers they have covered the interior of the church and they have been of great artistic value. They were reconstructed during the years 1945-1947. The earliest picture, on the north-side of the choir, represents St. Martin, with his sword sharing his mantle with a poor man. It is a painting from the later part of the twelfth century. Other paintings were found in the attic of the church at a restoration in the year 1975. They derived from the time before the vaults were constructed. Many paintings originate from the fourteenth and the fifteenth century, among the Saints images. From the later century there is a painting in the church porch of the Virgin Mary and St. John by the cross of Jesus. In the nave of the church you can see a painting of the coronation of the Virgin Mary with some of the apostles surrounding her. On the north wall of the choir you find the best known of these paintings, either representing the holy Kings visiting the little child Jesus and his mother, or a queen together with the family at Ellinge.
After the Reformation in the sixteenth century the church was restored again and provided with a pulpit. At the end of the sixteenth century Scania was a Swedish province, having earlier belonged to Denmark. The owners of Ellinge obtained the patronage of the church until this system was repealed in the whole country in 1921. In the years 1951-1953 the church was restored and in the later year it came into use again as a church of the parish. A new church was consecrated in Eslöv near the old one in the year 1891. After that the old church was unused until 1953.