Övraby, Medieval church ruin in Halmstad, Sweden

Övraby is a 12th-century church ruin in Halmstad Municipality that shows the remains of a stone building with a longhouse, chancel, and visible foundations. The remnants reveal the original layout of this early religious structure.

The site was the core of the original Halmstad settlement until the town relocated in the 1320s to its current location by the river Nissan. The village and church were then abandoned and later destroyed during a regional conflict.

The name Övraby means "the upper village", given after Halmstad moved south in 1320. Until the Reformation the church served as mother church for the new churches built in the fortified town of Broktorp-Halmstad after 1320. The church bell was taken to Nikolai kyrka in Halmstad when the village burned in 1563.

The ruin stands above the rapids at Slottsmöllan, near the Kärleken district, and is reached on foot; the excavated walls and uneven ground call for sturdy shoes. The site is an open monument in the Fornminnesregistret, so there are no gates or fixed opening hours.

The church roof is the oldest surviving example of an ornate ridge purlin in Sweden, dating to the 12th century. Excavations in 1978 by archaeologist Jan-Erik Augustsson found postholes for half-metre-thick posts inside the stone walls, remains of a wooden stave church probably built in the 1000s.