It is one of the churches for the Hitra og Fillan parish which is part of the Orkdal prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Nidaros.

The white, stone church was originally built around the year 1188 by an unknown architect.

It has a rectangular nave with narrower and chancel with a lower roof line, and it has no church porch.

However, after the fire in 1920, it was decided that a new, main church for the parish should be built across the strait in the village of Melandsjøen on the north shore of the island of Hitra.

Each church parish was a constituency that elected people called "electors" who later met together in each county to elect the representatives for the assembly that was to meet at Eidsvoll Manor later that year.