The church's brick origins are usually dated to the 1200s, though one source suggests the 1100s, making it one of the older brick churches in Skåne. It follows a Romanesque plan with a nave, a semicircular chancel and apse. A small, high-set round-arched window on the north side is a distinctive survival of this early style; its unusual height is thought to have been a defensive feature in more troubled times.
A porch was added on the south side in the 1400s, and the building was lengthened westwards on more than one occasion, first in 1630 and again in the 1850s, when the old bell-turret was replaced by the present slender tower. The tower's narrow proportions have prompted much local speculation, including a popular story that the builder confused internal and external measurements — an entertaining tale rather than a confirmed fact.
The church's greatest treasure is its vaulted ceiling and wall paintings, created in the 1400s by the so-called Vittskövle Master, Nils Håkansson, or one of his workshop. Painted in fresco technique, they depict scenes from the Old Testament, along with images in the chancel vault of St Nicholas of Myra, patron of sailors and children, to whom the church was dedicated.
After the Reformation, in the 1500s, the paintings were whitewashed over and hidden for centuries. They were uncovered in 1903 using techniques that unfortunately damaged some of the imagery, and were more carefully restored in 1963, returning them closer to their original appearance.
The church also contains a mechanical organ built in 1966 by J. Künkels Orgelverkstad of Lund, replacing an earlier instrument from 1909.