The oldest parts of the building—the nave, chancel and apse—date from before 1150, making this one of the older church structures in the area. The stepped-gable tower was added later in the medieval period and was rebuilt in the 1760s.
The chancel and apse contain wall paintings from three distinct periods. The earliest, in the apse, are attributed to a Byzantine-influenced painter thought to be the so-called Vinslöv Master, contemporary with the church's construction. Further paintings were added in the 14th century by the Snårestad Master and in the 15th century by the Everlöv Master, who decorated the chancel vault.
By the 1890s the old church was considered too small and worn for the parish's needs, leading to the construction of a new Södra Åsum church, consecrated in 1902. As a result, this older building retains relatively few fittings, though its font survives from the same early period as the oldest parts of the church.
Unusually for a medieval church of this type, the nave ceiling was never given a vaulted form and remains a flat timber roof, a feature that sets it apart from many contemporary churches in the region.
The present organ was built in 1970 by Olof Hammarberg of Gothenburg, replacing an earlier instrument from 1854 by Sven Fogelberg of Lund, whose façade was retained in the new organ.