[1] The present church was built in circa 1170 by Sune Ebbesen, from the influential Hvide clan who belonged to King Valdemar II's social circle.

His father, Ebbe Skjalmsen, the uncle of Bishop Absalon, had previously built a wooden church at the site.

The tower of Sune Ebbesen's round church contains a room which the Hvide family used as an assemblage hall.

The porch was built in about 1500 and the tower had previously been altered but was, between 1890 and 1892, changed by architect Hermann Baagøe Storck (1839–1922) to what he believed was its original design.

Architects Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint and Ivar Bentsen later made church projects which resembled Bjernede prior to Storck's intervention, when it had a Bishop's Hat-like roof.