Lye Church is located c. 300 metres (330 yd) south of the main road between Hemse and Ljugarn, on south-eastern Gotland.

A low (80 to 130 centimetres (2.6 to 4.3 ft)) stone wall, built sometime between 1765 and 1793 to replace an earlier wooden fence, limit the cemetery to the south, east and west.

[2] The northern part of the wall is partially demolished and opens up to a newer section of the cemetery, established north of the old one in 1944.

The formerly northern limit of the old cemetery is marked by a row of European ash and the younger part is bordered on all sides by small-leaved limes.

[5] Lye Church was built and to a large extent acquired its current appearance during the Middle Ages.

[18] Tempelman's designs were probably executed by builder Hans Hesselby, who also constructed the roof of the tower at Ala Church in 1780.

[20] The walls of the nave and chancel were at the same time cleaned, and the medieval paintings found under layers of whitewash restored.

[7] The walls of Lye Church are constructed of mainly grey, tufted limestone, whitewashed on the outside.

[22] On the north and south side of the first storey there are galleries accessible from inside the tower, each with two openings in the form of round arches separated by a small column.

The outer archivolts of these openings are made of alternating limestone and brick, an unusual construction material on Gotland during the Middle Ages.

[26] Immured as part of the southern post is a decorated stone container, which may originally have been intended as a sarcophagus or a reliquary but later used as building material.

The short side facing the door depicts the Madonna enthroned while the long side, facing the exterior, depicts scenes which have been interpreted as (from left to right) two legendary creatures fighting, two dragons or possible one dragon with two heads, a warrior with armour and weapons, and a horse.

It appears to not be original to its position and may have been removed from the earlier, demolished chancel to its present location during the Middle Ages.

It is a comparatively richly decorated, pointed arch crowned by a wimperg made of grey and red limestone.

[30] The tympanum is decorated with sculpted flowers, and the capitals of the nested columns each contain a set of sculptures with the overarching theme being the childhood of Christ.

[31] The sculptures are unusually well preserved, and a few of the figures still contain faint traces of original colour (black, red, and green).

Of the two in the northern wall, one is most probably a medieval tabernacle with still original doors and flanked by two immured limestone capitals, probably also made by Egypticus.

In the church floor there are also several medieval gravestones, including one made for a local man called Jakob, who according to the inscription was killed by a cannonball while participating in a siege of Eric of Pomerania at Visborg castle in the outskirts of Visby in 1449.

[40] As late as 2018, an earlier unknown runic inscription was discovered in the church; although its meaning remains unclear, it may be a profanity.

[42] The oldest set of paintings date from c. 1350 and decorate the chancel vault and its northern wall with large-scale figures.

[45] Lye Church contains the largest preserved set of medieval stained glass in the Nordic countries.

[50] The windows are in a High Gothic style, the figures depicted as slim and delicate, with loose clothes and rhythmically curly hair and beards.

[52] The altarpiece carries an inscription in Latin which relates that it was donated to the church in 1496 by a farmer named Jon who lived in the parish.

The middle section contains a sculpted representation of God the Father with the dead Christ in his arms, surrounded by angels.

[54] The outsides of the wings are decorated with rather severely damaged paintings, depicting the saints Olaf, Lawrence, John the Baptist and Stephen.

[61] Lye Church is an ecclesiastical monument, number 21300000002810 (sub-number: 21400000444058) in the buildings database of the Swedish National Heritage Board.