Before the present church was built, a chapel known as Ämbeskogs or Hedarne is believed to have stood on a headland in Lake Emneskogssjön, probably abandoned during the 16th century. The site of today's church, beside Svaneholm manor, is also said to have medieval origins.
Philip Eckel, who built Svanskogs kyrka, was also involved with the mason Christian Haller in constructing the new cathedral in Karlstad around the same period. As a result, this parish church was built largely as a wooden copy of that cathedral, sharing its regular cross-shaped plan. According to Wikipedia, the church was consecrated on 11 November 1733, with the west tower added in 1738 and the sacristy and store room built into the eastern cross-arm in 1764.
The exterior walls and roof are clad in wood shingles, and the tower is topped by an ogee-shaped cupola. Inside, the nave is covered by two intersecting wooden barrel vaults. Above the sacristy is a manorial gallery dated to 1764, its parapet decorated with floral motifs and sculpted balusters attributed to Isac Schullström, the sculptor who is also credited with the richly carved pulpit of 1742 and who is said to be buried in the churchyard.
The altarpiece is described as a late Renaissance work, with a central painting of Christ blessing the bread added considerably later, in 1883, by the artist Kerstin von Post. A soapstone font, dated to the 13th century, is among the oldest surviving furnishings and is thought to have come from an earlier church on the site. A twelve-branched iron chandelier is recorded as dating from 1693.
The church has had more than one organ over the years: an instrument by Åkerman & Lund was installed in 1891, later replaced in the twentieth century, with the current organ built in 1966.