[1] It is located around 300 metres (980 ft) north of the main road between Ljugarn and Lye on eastern Gotland.

[6] Several graves from the Viking Age, belonging to Christians, have been found in the cemetery, containing fragments of clothing.

[7][10][12] A document from the Diocese of Linköping, to which Gotland belonged during the Middle Ages, contains a note about an inaugural service in the year 1200.

[13] Characteristic for the earliest churches on Gotland is the less finely hewn stone used as building material, the lack of an articulated base or plinth, and the simple round arched entrance portals, all elements found in the nave of Garde Church.

[12] The baptismal font and triumphal cross still in the church are from the same time and were probably acquired in connection with its inauguration.

[10] The building material of Garde Church is limestone of grey shades, and brick, which is used exclusively in a few decorative elements in the tower facade.

The northern portal of the nave may originally have been the entrance to the now vanished first chancel, and moved to its current location when the church was rebuilt in the 14th century.

[17] The tympanum above the portal is decorated with a sculpture of a sitting Christ with one hand resting on a book and the other raised in a gesture of blessing.

The combination of limestone and brick in their decoration is similar to the openings in the church towers at Lye and Burs.

[21] The church interior is divided into three main spaces: the ground floor of the tower to the west, the nave in the middle and the chancel to the east.

The tower ground floor is comparatively small and dark, and connected with the nave with a narrow but tall decorated arch.

The largest one of these is a niche with a seat in the southern wall of the chancel, the interior of which is decorated with a painting from the 14th century.

[26] On the northern wall of the choir there is a smaller niche that originally served as a tabernacle, which also contains decorations from the 14th century.

[25] The inside of the walls of the church contains a number of carvings, both runic inscriptions and depictions of ships, the latter probably from the late Middle Ages.

[28] One set of murals, on the soffit of the arch connecting the nave to the ground floor of the tower, is however still very well preserved and have never been covered.

[31] They are recognised as being of high quality and have been called "the best evidence of a byzantinizing workshop on Gotland and as such are justly celebrated".

Each saint is standing upright, tending towards contrapposto, and faces the viewer, with the left hand raised in a blessing gesture and the other holding a cross.

[36] The exact nature of the link between these Russian churches and the paintings at Garde remains an open question.

[41] This mixture of influences has led to the hypothesis that the artist was trained in a Russo-Byzantine environment but also worked using illuminated manuscripts as pattern books.

[45] The baptismal font of the church dates from the late 12th century and is made by an artist or workshop known by the notname Byzantios.

Like all baptismal fonts by Byzantios, it has an octagonal basin, decorated with figures in low relief between short columns supporting round arches.

[46] The altarpiece of Garde Church is made of sculpted and painted limestone, and dates from 1689, or possibly 1682.

The crown is a modern replica made with the triumphal cross in Lokrume Church as a model.

[51] Garde Church is an ecclesiastical monument, number 21300000002676 (sub-number: 21400000444025) in the buildings database of the Swedish National Heritage Board.