Kinsarvik 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 ...

Ullensvang Municipality Ullensvang is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Hardanger. The administrative centre is the town of Odda. Some of the notable villages in the municipality include Lofthus, Utne, Vikebygd, ...

Vestland Vestland is a Counties of Norway, county in Norway. The county is located in Western Norway, and its administrative centre is Bergen, where the executive and political leadership is based. The County governor (Norway), County Governor is based in ...

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

Kinsarvik Kinsarvik is a village in the municipality of Ullensvang in Vestland county, Norway. The village is located at the end of a small bay at the confluence of the Sørfjorden and the Eid Fjord, where they join to form the main branch of the Hardang ...

. It is the church for the Kinsarvik

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

Hardanger og Voss prosti Hardanger is a traditional district in the western part of Norway, dominated by the Hardangerfjord and its inner branches of the Sørfjorden and the Eid Fjord. It consists of the municipalities of Ullensvang, Eidfjord, Ulvik and Kvam, and is l ...

(

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 Bjørgvin The Diocese of Bjørgvin () is one of the 11 dioceses that make up the Church of Norway. It includes all of the churches located in the county of Vestland in Western Norway, and those outside of Norway in the Seamen's Church. The cathedral cit ...

. The gray stone church was built in a

long church Church building in Norway began when Christianity in Norway, Christianity was established there around the year 1000. The first buildings may have been post churches erected in the 10th or 11th century, but the evidence is inconclusive. For inst ...

design around the year 1160 using plans drawn up by an unknown

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

. The church seats about 240 people. It is the oldest stone church in the whole

Hardanger Hardanger is a traditional district in the western part of Norway, dominated by the Hardangerfjord and its inner branches of the Sørfjorden and the Eid Fjord. It consists of the municipalities of Ullensvang, Eidfjord, Ulvik and Kvam, and is ...

region, and at one time, it was one of the four main churches for all of the old ''Hordafylke'' county.

History

The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1298, but the church was not new that year. The first church in Kinsarvik was a wooden

post church Post church (Norwegian: ''stolpekirke'') is a term for a church building which predates the stave churches and differ in that the corner posts do not reside on a sill but instead have posts dug into the earth. Posts are the vertical, roof-bearin ...

that was built on this site around the year 1050. It was the first wooden church to be built in all of the

region. The church had a

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

that measured about and a smaller choir with unknown dimensions. Around the year 1160, the wooden church was torn down and a new stone church was built on the same site (an alternate theory is that the stone church was built around the wooden church, which was removed after the stone church enclosed it). Remains of the previous wooden church have been found under the present church. The new church was built in a Romanesque style. The church has a rectangular

and a narrower, almost square

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

. The foundation walls of the new stone church were built about wide. Archaeological investigations have found that there was a fire in the church, likely around the year 1180. This was around the time when the

Birkebeiner The Birkebein Party or Birkebeinar (; (nynorsk) or (bokmål)) was the name for a rebellious party in Norway, formed in 1174 around the pretender to the Norwegian throne, Eystein Meyla. The name has its origins in propaganda from the establ ...

s ravaged

Hordaland Hordaland () was a county in Norway, bordering Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Telemark, and Rogaland counties. Hordaland was the third largest county, after Akershus and Oslo, by population. The county government was the Hordaland County Munici ...

county as they were fighting for power. The church was originally built without a

choir A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

. After the fire, the church was repaired and a new choir was built, probably in the early 13th century. High up on the west gable is a window opening leading into the church attic. It is here that they used to hoist the local ship sails and masts to store during the winters. The church underwent an extensive restoration in 1880 under the direction of architect Christian Christie. Much of the newer furniture was then taken away, and the building was given a medieval feel. The

measures and the

measures . In 1960, a wooden

church porch A church porch is a room-like structure at a church's main entrance. A porch protects from the weather to some extent. Some porches have an outer door, others a simple gate, and in some cases the outer opening is not closed in any way. The porch ...

measuring was built on the west end of the nave.

Media gallery

2016-07-01 Kinsarvik kirke (1).jpg, 2016-07-01 Kinsarvik kirke (7).jpg, Kinsarvik Church, Norway (14858055734).jpg, Kinsarvik kirke-2016.jpg, Kinsarvik kirke T276 01 0103.jpg, Kinsarvik kyrkje Wilse 1.jpeg, Kinsarvik kyrkje Wilse 2.jpeg, Kinsarvik kyrkje Wilse.jpeg,

References

{{use dmy dates, date=May 2020 Ullensvang Churches in Vestland Long churches in Norway Stone churches in Norway Buildings and structures completed in 1160 12th-century churches in Norway 11th-century establishments in Norway

History

Media gallery

See also

References