A medieval timber church once stood on this site and was, according to local tradition, regarded as an 'offerkyrka' — a church where votive gifts were thought to increase the chance of prayers being answered, and where children from Öland and Gotland were said to be brought for baptism. By the mid-1700s this older building had been demolished to make way for a new stone church.
The rebuilding was made possible by a substantial donation from Anna Cederflycht, who owned the nearby estates of Helgerum and Ankarsrum. Sources differ slightly on the architectural credit: one account names bishop Andreas Rhyzelius as architect with Anders Hanquist as master builder, while another attributes the design more simply to builder A. Hanquist; Carl Hårleman is credited by one source as co-designer of the tower. A marble tablet inside the church commemorates Cederflycht's role in funding the 1760 building, according to an inscription cut a century later in 1860.
The church is a Gustavian-style single-nave hall church, its interior reflecting the Rococo and Gustavian tastes of the period. The altarpiece and pulpit were carved by the sculptor named in sources as Nils Österbom or Nils Österman (accounts differ on the exact form of his name), who is also linked to work in Kalmar's S:ta Gertrud church and, according to one source, to the original organ façade. The altarpiece itself is attributed to Magnus Wicander.
Inside the porch stands a carved gravestone dating from the 1600s, said to have been rescued and preserved through the efforts of a former vicar, Claes-Göran Thorell. The church has had several organs over the centuries; the current instrument, built in the early twentieth century and later modified, retains a façade and sounding front pipes from the 1760 organ, offering a visible link back to the church's earliest years.