The earliest church on the site was a
stave church, later replaced by a
Romanesque stone church. Of these first churches nothing remains, except for some
Romanesque reliefs incorporated in the southern wall of the present church, and the
baptismal font, made by the master sculptor known through the
notname as
Byzantios. The presently visible church is a comparatively large
Gothic building, dating from the middle of the 14th century. Only the tower is later, built during the 14th century. It was around 75 meters tall and the tallest tower in Gotland. But it was heavily damaged by a
lightning strike in 1817. The upper part of the tower, including the
roof lantern, therefore dates from 1820. The church is one of the largest churches on Gotland, which is probably because the large parish was at the time one of the richest on Gotland. It is however also possible that the unusual size of the church can be explained by that the church, like
Lau Church, may have been used by
Dominican friars to preach
crusades against pagans in present-day
Estonia and
Latvia. No major alterations have been made to the church since. Archaeological investigations and a renovation was carried out in 1960 to 1961. ==Architecture==