The church was probably constructed during the 14th century, with its distinctive, sturdy tower added in the 1460s. Records indicate a church consecration took place in 1468, by which time the tower is likely to have been complete. The building was later extended with transepts in the 1750s, and has undergone further renovations and restorations over the centuries, including work in the 1870s, 1920s and early 1990s.
Inside, the church holds what is often described as Sweden's second-largest collection of medieval wooden ecclesiastical sculpture, after Vadstena Abbey Church. The chancel contains three altar cabinets and several further carved figures, while additional pieces from the collection are kept at the Hälsingland Museum. Among the most notable works are the high altar cabinet, a large altar cabinet, and the so-called Marian altar cabinet, popularly known as the "Bollnäs Madonna" and generally attributed to the sculptor Haaken Gulleson, working around 1520. A substantial altar cabinet, some 3.5 metres tall, is recorded as having arrived at the church in 1468.
The vaulted ceilings carry decorative paintings by Gunnar Torhamn, added in 1928. In the 1930s and 1940s, the artist Bror Hillgren, who worked in nearby Delsbo, painted a depiction of Bollnäs kyrka with the surrounding town in the background.
The church has had a succession of organs over the centuries, reflecting changing tastes and technology, from an 18th-century instrument by Jonas Gren and Petter Stråhle, through a much larger 19th-century organ by E. A. Setterquist & Son with a facade designed by architect Johan Fredrik Åbom, to the current instrument built in 1981 by Olof Hammarberg, which retains the older facade.