Construction of the current church began around 1588, though work stalled after King Johan III's death in 1592. The cross-shaped building was not consecrated until 1634, making it the oldest church on Södermalm. Its Baroque character owes much to Nicodemus Tessin the Elder, who oversaw later expansions, and his son Nicodemus Tessin the Younger, who designed the western portal that still forms the main entrance today.
A severe fire in July 1759 destroyed much of the tower and swept through some 300 surrounding buildings. The church was restored between 1760 and 1763 under Carl Johan Cronstedt, who also designed the Rococo interior seen today, including the altarpiece by Louis Masreliez depicting the Adoration of the Shepherds, completed around 1800. The present tower, in a Neoclassical style by Carl Fredrik Sundvall, was not finished until 1825; it is said to incorporate material from the medieval chapel's earlier tower and stands slightly askew from the church's central axis.
The organ case, created in 1774 by C. F. Adelcrantz, is regarded as an outstanding example of Swedish Rococo craftsmanship. The instrument itself began as a thirty-stop organ delivered in 1878 by Åkerman & Lund, later enlarged in 1927 to its present fifty stops. It is considered one of Sweden's most significant surviving late-Romantic organs, capable of rendering the Swedish Romantic repertoire in something close to its original sound.
The churchyard has been in use since the 1350s and contains burial vaults built between 1709 and 1777 along its southern edge. Among those buried here are the poets Evert Taube and Lasse Lucidor, the poet Erik Johan Stagnelius, and Maria Kristina Kiellström, popularly associated with Bellman's muse Ulla Winblad.