Langesund 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 ...

Bamble Municipality Bamble is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Grenland. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Langesund ...

Telemark Telemark () is a Counties of Norway, county and a current electoral district in Norway. Telemark borders the counties of Vestfold, Buskerud, Vestland, Rogaland and Agder. In 2020, Telemark merged with the county of Vestfold to form the county o ...

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 town of

Langesund is the administrative centre of Bamble Municipality in Telemark county, Norway. The town is located on a peninsula along the Langesundsfjorden near the Skaggerak coast. The town of Stathelle lies about to the northwest. The town was establi ...

. It is the church for the Langesund parish which is part of the Bamble 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 Agder og Telemark The Diocese of Agder og Telemark () is a diocese of the Church of Norway, covering all of Agder county and Telemark county in Norway. The cathedral city is Kristiansand, Norway's fifth largest city. Kristiansand Cathedral serves as the seat of t ...

. The white, brick church was built in a

rectangular In Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is a rectilinear convex polygon or a quadrilateral with four right angles. It can also be defined as: an equiangular quadrilateral, since equiangular means that all of its angles are equal (360°/4 = 90 ...

design in 1992 using plans drawn up by the architect Tor Arild Danielsen. The church seats about 340 people.

History

From 1753 to 1755, a church was built in Langesund. It was

consecrated Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects (a ...

on 22 July 1755 Bishop

Niels Dorph Niels Dorph (1681–1758) was a Danish/Norwegian clergyman. He served as Bishop of the Diocese of Oslo The Diocese of Oslo is the Church of Norway's Diocese, bishopric for the municipalities of Oslo, Asker and Bærum. It is one of Norway' ...

. The church went by the name Bethel and it had about 450 seats. This was a timber

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 ...

that had a tower with a

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 ...

at the foot of the tower. Later, a

sacristy A sacristy, also known as a vestry or preparation room, is a room in Christianity, Christian churches for the keeping of vestments (such as the alb and chasuble) and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records. The sacristy is us ...

was added. On 27 November 1988, there was a fire and the church burned down during the night (possibly caused by a furnace located behind the altar, near the sacristy. Very little from the old church was able to be saved. After the fire, there was considerable local disagreement about the design of the new church, so a compromise was reached. The new church was designed by Tormod Bynke and Tor Arild Danielsen. The

foundation stone A cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry Foundation (engineering), foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entir ...

was laid on 28 June 1991 by

Princess Märtha Louise Princess is a title used by a female member of a regnant monarch's family or by a female ruler of a principality. The male equivalent is a prince (from Latin ''princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for t ...

in the presence of King Harald,

Queen Sonja Sonja (born Sonja Haraldsen; 4 July 1937) is Queen of Norway as the wife of King Harald V. Sonja and the then Crown Prince Harald had dated for nine years prior to their marriage in 1968. They had kept their relationship a secret due to the ...

, and

Crown Prince Haakon Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway (; Haakon Magnus; born 20 July 1973) is the heir apparent to the Norwegian throne. He is the only son of King Harald V and Queen Sonja. Haakon represents the fourth generation of the sitting Norwegian royal fami ...

. The church was built in 1991–1992 and it was

on 29 November 1992, four years after the fire. The new building is of brick, but clad in wood. The church has a tower at the entrance on the north side and a sacristy on the south end. The main body of the church has a church hall, 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 ...

, and a

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 ...

, with a movable dividing wall between the church hall and nave. The external form is similar to that of a traditional

, but it also has uses more modern materials and architectural details.

References

{{use dmy dates, date=December 2022 Bamble Churches in Telemark Rectangular churches in Norway Brick churches in Norway 20th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1992 1755 establishments in Norway

History

See also

References