The church's history stretches back to the 1100s, when Ströja church served as a place of worship for royalty and aristocracy on Visingsö. Between 1623 and 1636, Count Magnus Brahe rebuilt it on the foundations of the older church, retaining its Romanesque sandstone west tower, to create a lavish monument to the Brahe family. Magnus Brahe died before the work was finished, and his nephew Per Brahe the Younger completed the building as a combined castle and burial church.
The tower itself tells its own story of change, its three storeys spanning a decorated porch, a gallery or chapel level, and a former bell chamber now housing the tower clock. It was heightened in the 1670s and crowned with the pointed spire and gilded orb that still mark the church today. Nearby stands a separate wooden bell tower, built because a large bell donated by Per Brahe proved too big for the tower itself; the bells hanging there bear dates from 1672, 1826 and 1910.
Inside, the nave is a three-aisled, vaulted space built to Renaissance ideals from local limestone and slate, with a copper roof added in 1680 at the expense of Per Brahe's sister. The interior is unusually rich for a parish church, reflecting the wealth and ambition of the Brahe family during Sweden's great power era. Wall and ceiling paintings, carved figures and heraldic decoration accumulated over decades, much of the finest work carried out by the court artist Johan Werner the Elder and later his son.,