Flakstad Church () is a

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

of the

Church of Norway The Church of Norway (, , , ) is an Lutheranism, evangelical Lutheran denomination of Protestant Christianity and by far the largest Christian church in Norway. Christianity became the state religion of Norway around 1020, and was established a ...

Flakstad Municipality Flakstad is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Nordland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Districts of Norway, traditional district of the island group Lofoten. The administrative centre of the municipality is ...

Nordland Nordland (; , , , ) is one of the three northernmost Counties of Norway, counties in Norway in the Northern Norway region, bordering Troms in the north, Trøndelag in the south, Norrbotten County in Sweden to the east, Västerbotten County to t ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. It is located in the village of Flakstad. It is the church for the Flakstad

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

which is part of the Lofoten prosti (

deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residence of ...

) in the Diocese of Sør-Hålogaland. The red, wooden church was built in a

cruciform A cruciform is a physical manifestation resembling a common cross or Christian cross. These include architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly described as having a cruciform ...

style in 1780. The church seats about 300 people. It is the

millennium site A millennium site () is a site selected by a Norwegian municipality or county municipality to mark the transition to the 2000s. In Norway it was decided that the counties and municipalities would choose one millennium site for each county and m ...

for

. The long, low church building is a cog-jointed construction using timbers clad externally with red-painted wooden paneling, as was usual at the end of the eighteenth century. The small-paned windows have white frames. The roof is covered with tiles and a ridge turret with an

onion dome An onion dome is a dome whose shape resembles an onion. Such domes are often larger in diameter than the tholobate (drum) upon which they sit, and their height usually exceeds their width. They taper smoothly upwards to a point. It is a typical ...

and spire crowns the intersection of the cross arms.

History

Flakstad Church was first mentioned in existing written sources in 1430, but it was likely built before that time. The church has a

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

baptismal font A baptismal font is an Church architecture, ecclesiastical architectural element, which serves as a receptacle for baptismal water used for baptism, as a part of Christian initiation for both rites of Infant baptism, infant and Believer's bapti ...

that dates back to 1250–1300, which suggests that the church may have been built in the second half of the 13th century. The medieval building was a

timber-framed Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy Beam (structure), timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and Woodworking joints, joined timbers with joints secure ...

design, but had no tower. The old building was destroyed by a storm around the year 1780. Shortly afterwards, a new church was built in approximately the same site using timber from

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. The new building seats about 300 people. One of

chandelier A chandelier () is an ornamental lighting device, typically with spreading branched supports for multiple lights, designed to be hung from the ceiling. Chandeliers are often ornate, and they were originally designed to hold candles, but now inca ...

s in the new church also came from Russia. Several of the items from the old church including two chandeliers and the altartable were taken from the old church and put into the new church. The new church had a tower on the roof about the central part of the building. The tower has a small

on top. In 1814, this church served as an election church (). Together with more than 300 other parish churches across Norway, it was a polling station for elections to the 1814

Norwegian Constituent Assembly The Norwegian Constituent Assembly ( or ) is the name given to the 1814 constitutional assembly that adopted the Norwegian Constitution and formalised the dissolution of the union with Denmark. The meetings took place at the Eidsvoll Manor in th ...

which wrote the

Constitution of Norway The 'Constitution of Norway'' (complete name: The Constitution of the Kingdom of Norway; Danish language, Danish: ; Norwegian language, Norwegian Bokmål: ; Nynorsk, Norwegian Nynorsk: ) was adopted on 16 May and signed on 17 May 1814 by the N ...

. This was Norway's first national elections. Each church parish was a constituency that elected people called "electors" who later met together in each county to elect the representatives for the assembly that was to meet at Eidsvoll Manor later that year. In 1874, a hurricane blew the church tower off. The tower was then temporarily set up next to the church. During renovations in 1938, the tower was put back in place on top of the church.

Media gallery

2530HDR Flakstad.jpg, Kościół w Flakstad.JPG, Flakstad kirke - an10071209106011.jpg, Flakstad kirke - an10071209106012.jpg, Vue de Flakstad (Flakstad).jpg, Trolig Flakstad krk.JPG, Kanstadsamlingen - NMF010005-00200.jpg, Flakstad-Kirche-12-2019-gje.jpg Flakstad-Kirche-20-2019-gje.jpg Flakstad-Kirche-30-2019-gje.jpg Flakstad-Kirche-24-2019-gje.jpg

References

{{use dmy dates, date=March 2021 Flakstad Churches in Nordland Cruciform churches in Norway Wooden churches in Norway 18th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1780 13th-century establishments in Norway Millennium sites Norwegian election churches

History

Media gallery

See also

References