The church was built of sandstone in the Romanesque style during the latter part of the 1100s, and the chancel and semicircular apse still date from this earliest phase. In the 1400s the building was vaulted and a tower added, while stepped gables and buttresses were introduced during the early twentieth century, giving the church its present layered appearance combining medieval and modern elements.
Inside the apse survive Romanesque wall paintings from the late twelfth century, attributed to the so-called Bjäresjö Master, a named workshop associated with a number of Skåne churches. These murals are among the church's most distinctive features for visitors interested in medieval art.
Among the church's furnishings, the original medieval font has been lost, but a pewter christening dish from the 1500s survives, its base decorated with a depiction of the Annunciation. The present font dates from 1917. A brass chandelier is said to date from the 1300s. The current organ was built in 1952 by the Danish firm Th Frobenius & Co of Lyngby, replacing earlier instruments from 1862 and 1917.
The churchyard holds a grave of particular interest to literary visitors: that of Lev Lvovich Tolstoy (1863–1945), son of the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy and bearing the same name. According to local tradition, the younger Tolstoy was sent to Sweden for medical treatment while seriously ill, fell in love with his doctor's daughter, and settled permanently in Skåne.