The church was constructed in 1944–1945 to designs by the architect Knut Nordenskjöld. It is a timber building without a tower, and its interior chancel is narrower than the main body of the church, a modest and functional design typical of many mid-twentieth-century rural churches built in northern Sweden.
From 1962 to 2009 the building served as the parish church of the former Nilivaara parish before being incorporated into Gällivare parish, within the Diocese of Luleå.
The church's first organ, a pneumatic instrument with four stops, was built in 1945 by Grönlunds Orgelfabrik of Notviken; it was later moved to the Gällivare parish hall. The organ now in the church was built in 1970 by Grönlunds Orgelbyggeri of Gammelstad, a mechanical instrument with divided registers in its manual, reflecting the more traditional organ-building approach favoured in Sweden by that period.