A major fire swept through Vänersborg in 1777, leaving almost nothing of the earlier church standing except for a medieval bell. The town's fourth church was built to replace it, completed without a tower and consecrated on 5 August 1784. It was designed by Thure Wennberg of the Överintendentsämbetet (the Office of the Superintendent of Buildings) in a restrained, symmetrical classicist style, and was reportedly the largest building project undertaken in the diocese of Skara at that time.
The church is a three-aisled hall church. Its façade was designed by Olof Tempelman and has changed only slightly since. The tower was not added until the very end of the century, going up around 1798–1799. A sacristy followed much later, built in 1922 and extended in 1972. The building has been renovated several times, including in 1865, 1925, 1972 and 2011, though its original character has generally been respected.
Among the furnishings, the font's basin is thought to date from the 13th century, considerably older than the current building, presumably surviving from an earlier church on the site. The altarpiece, pulpit, hymn-number boards and columns were designed by Jean Eric Rehn, who served as an interior designer to King Gustav III. The altar painting itself, depicting the crowned Saviour, is a later addition by Georg von Rosen, installed in 1925 to complete a scheme that had originally been left unfinished. Two bells hang in the tower, cast in 1780 and 1896.
The church has had a succession of organs over the centuries, reflecting changing tastes and technology. The organ case on the west gallery is original to the 1780s and was designed by Tempelman, though the instrument behind it has been rebuilt and altered many times since, most recently in 2013. A smaller chancel organ, built in 1977, stands at floor level in the south part of the church and can also be played from the main organ's console.