Håstad appears in a donation charter issued in 1085 by the Danish king Knud IV, later venerated as Knut den helige. This document, in which the village is named Hastatum, is regarded as an important early source for the history of Skåne and Denmark, since so few comparable texts survive from that period.
The church itself was built in the 13th century in Gothic style, with the tower added later in the medieval period. It remained largely unchanged until the mid-19th century, when it was substantially rebuilt under the architect Carl Georg Brunius: the nave gained two transepts and a new chancel, and the tower was also remodelled.
In 1909 (sources differ, with one giving 1911), a fire broke out after the northern stove was overheated during a cold winter. The blaze was extinguished, but the timber roof structure and barrel vaults were badly damaged. Restoration work lasting several years followed, overseen by the then cathedral architect Theodor Wåhlin, and a new timber ceiling replaced the damaged vaulting.
The altarpiece, painted in 1930, depicts Christ in Gethsemane. It was begun by the artist Justus Lundegård, who lived locally at Vadmöllan, but he died before completing the work, which was finished by his wife together with the painter Alfred Hedlund.
Above the font stand a group of medieval wooden sculptures that once formed part of an altar shrine, showing the Virgin Mary with the Christ child flanked by figures identified as Saint Barbara, Saint Dorothy, Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret. The church interior is notable for its dark-stained timber roof, with beams and corbels picked out in green and red, and for a small baptismal chapel in the north transept, fitted out in 1956 to a design by the cathedral architect Eiler Græbe.