Selbu Church ( no, Selbu kirke) is a parish church of the

Church of Norway The Church of Norway ( nb, Den norske kirke, nn, Den norske kyrkja, se, Norgga girku, sma, Nöörjen gærhkoe) is an evangelical Lutheran denomination of Protestant Christianity and by far the largest Christian church in Norway. The church b ...

in Selbu municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is located in the village of Mebonden. It is one of the churches for the Selbu parish which is part of the Stjørdal prosti (

deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Roman 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 residenc ...

) in the Diocese of Nidaros. The church seats about 550 people. The white, stone church was built in a cruciform style around the year 1150 under designs by an unknown architect.

History

The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1409, but the church was not new that year. The old stone church was likely built around the year 1150. It was originally built as a single- nave

long church Church building in Norway began when 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 instance under Urnes Stave C ...

with narrower choir with a lower roof line in the southeast. It is believed that the choir was built first, around the mid-12th century while the nave was completed afterwards.

Dendrochronological Dendrochronology (or tree-ring dating) is the scientific method of dating tree rings (also called growth rings) to the exact year they were formed. As well as dating them, this can give data for dendroclimatology, the study of climate and at ...

analyses of the roof structure in the nave show that the timber for this was cut in 1176-1177. The stone for the church structure is converted sandstone. The large tower on the west end also houses the entry porch for the church. This tower was likely free-standing when it was originally built, possibly around the 1280s. The tower bell is dated to the year 1283. Later, the nave was extended further west so that the tower is now attached to the nave. The baroque altarpiece is from 1656 and was carved by Trøndelag-based artist and craftsman Johan Johansen (Johan bilthugger) and painted by Johan Hanssønn (kontrafeier). From 1804-1806, the church was renovated. The medieval choir was demolished and a new choir was built to replace it. The nave was also enlarged by adding two small transept arms to give the church a cruciform design, although the church is set up as a

with all seating facing the choir. In 1814, this church served as an election church ( no, valgkirke). 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 (in Norwegian ''Grunnlovsforsamlingen'', also known as ''Riksforsamlingen'') is the name given to the 1814 constitutional assembly at Eidsvoll in Norway, that adopted the Norwegian Constitution and formalised th ...

which wrote the

Constitution of Norway nb, Kongeriket Norges Grunnlov nn, Kongeriket Noregs Grunnlov , jurisdiction =Kingdom of Norway , date_created =10 April - 16 May 1814 , date_ratified =16 May 1814 , system =Constitutional monarchy , b ...

. 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 in Eidsvoll later that year. In 1888, the building was extensively restored and rebuilt. It was then restored again from 1949-1963 under the supervision of John Egil Tverdahl. During this time much of the Gothic interior was removed. Many of the parts of the old altarpiece were retrieved and reconstructed according to patterns from other similar altarpieces. The building was not thoroughly investigated during the restoration work of the 20th century, nor was it archaeologically excavated. When a new floor was laid in the church in 1959, a total of 118 coins were found, most of them being Norwegian and Swedish. They were all found in the dirt under the old church floor. The Swedish coins have a dating range from 1275-1560, while 34 of the total 58 Norwegian are minted under

Håkon Håkonsson Haakon IV Haakonsson ( – 16 December 1263; Old Norse: ''Hákon Hákonarson'' ; Norwegian: ''Håkon Håkonsson''), sometimes called Haakon the Old in contrast to his namesake son, was King of Norway from 1217 to 1263. His reign lasted for 46 y ...

(1217–63).

Media gallery

SELBU KIRKE - an10071204232003.jpg SELBU KIRKE - an10071204232002.jpg Selbu kirke UBT-TO-070307 01 1.jpg Selbu UBT-TO-081646 01 1.jpg

References

{{use dmy dates, date=June 2021 Selbu Churches in Trøndelag Cruciform churches in Norway Stone churches in Norway Churches completed in 1150 12th-century churches in Norway Norwegian election church

History

Media gallery

See also

References