The church was built around 1100, likely replacing an earlier wooden building. Its architecture and decoration are thought by some scholars to show English influence, a feature it shares with the nearby Skalunda church. The only part surviving from the original layout is the eastern chancel wall, built in finely dressed sandstone courses; the nave, added later, uses much larger stones laid in a noticeably different pattern, suggesting the two sections date from separate building campaigns. The tower walls are bonded together with the nave, an unusual arrangement suggesting they were raised at the same time, and its massive proportions have led some to suggest the tower may also have served a defensive purpose.
The well-preserved south portal dates from the twelfth century, while the porch and sacristy were added in the late medieval period. After a lightning-caused fire in 1851, the chancel was widened to match the nave, the windows enlarged, and the original vaulted ceiling with its medieval wall paintings replaced by a wooden roof. The tall spire characteristic of churches in the Kålland district was reinstated in 1913, following a major restoration.
The building's survival was not a foregone conclusion: proposals to demolish it were raised around 1760 and again in 1907, though on both occasions the church was spared, with the 1907 proposal leading instead to the 1913 restoration.
Among the church's most distinctive features are its carved stone reliefs. At the tower portal, a carving shows a centaur wearing a Viking-style helmet, sword drawn and aimed at anyone entering, with a hoof raised as if to strike — a non-Christian creature apparently intended to frighten off evil from the church. Other carved stone blocks set into the walls include an enigmatic relief showing two men holding indistinct objects around a suspended cross; some of these details have parallels in Anglo-Saxon stone carving, leading to suggestions that the work may date from close to 1100 and could be by an English sculptor, though this remains a matter of interpretation rather than settled fact.
The church once had two medieval bells. The larger bell was recast in Ystad in 1935, while the smaller, older bell was sold before 1914 and now hangs in a bell tower at the Västergötland Museum's open-air site in Skara. The churchyard contains pre-Romanesque grave monuments, including a coffin-shaped stone marker with a wedge-shaped lid and gable crosses, along with two rune stones, one inside the church and one outside.