The church was built in the mid-12th century, probably dedicated to St Dionysius. Its most celebrated features are the paintings in the chancel arch, said to include what may be among the oldest surviving royal portraits in the Nordic region, depicting Archbishop Absalon and a king identified in one source as Knut den helige and in another as Knut VI. The stonemason responsible for the building is recorded as Johannes, whose carved signature—a rounded square—appears around forty times throughout the church; the same mark is found in Lund Cathedral, suggesting he worked there after the cathedral's construction in 1145.
The building's patron, named Iacobi, has a tomb preserved in the sacristy, a mark of status at a time when only kings, bishops and patrons were permitted burial within a church's walls. The altar is said to date from the early medieval period.
The church developed considerably over the following centuries. Ceiling paintings were added to the chancel in the early 13th century, and the apse paintings are thought to belong to the same period. The chancel was vaulted towards the end of the 13th or start of the 14th century, with further vaulting added later in the nave. In the early 16th century the apse was demolished and replaced by the sacristy seen today, and a porch was built beside the south portal at around the same time.
Later alterations included a westward extension around 1725, the addition of the Coyet family burial chapel in 1803 (now used as a mortuary chapel), a bell tower built onto the porch in 1848, and a further extension on the north side in 1853. The medieval font is thought to have been made by Mårten Stenmästare, with a brass basin added in the 16th century. The church seats around 120 people, and its current organ, a mechanical instrument, was built in 1958 by the Danish organ builder Jens Zachariassen, replacing an earlier one from 1927.