It is the church for the Lesja og Lesjaskog parish which is part of the Nord-Gudbrandsdal prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Hamar.

The brown, wooden church was built in an cruciform design in 1749 using plans drawn up by the architect Ola Fredriksson Hole.

This building was located at Hov (or historically, Hof), about 500 metres (1,600 ft) south of the present church site.

The river Gudbrandsdalslågen flows past the village, but centuries ago the water level was higher, giving it more the appearance of a long, narrow, shallow lake.

The new site was on the north side of the parsonage farm on a hill in the middle of the valley, surrounded by woods.

One arm constitutes the choir, separated from the nave with a chancel screen, usually crowned with the king's monogram supported by two lions.

In the case of Lesja Church, it is the monogram of Frederick V.[8] The cross-arms have a gable roof of uniform height.

In order to create a solid structure, the builder allowed the top three logs to extend through the cross-arms.

[3] Klukstad was from Lom but he moved to Lesja and was the head of the household at the parsonage farm, probably at the time he was working on the church.

It is a large and richly executed work of art with a framework of acanthus surrounding several carved figures.

In the 1920s, another restoration took place under the direction of Heinrich Jürgensen and later completed by the builder Christian Ødegård from Lesja.