Stavang Church ( no, Stavang kyrkje) is a

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the 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 community activitie ...

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 Lutheranism, evangelical Lutheran denomination of Protestant Christianity and by far the largest Christian church in Norway. ...

Kinn Municipality Kinn is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It was established on 1 January 2020. It is in the traditional districts of Nordfjord and Sunnfjord. The municipality is the only non-contiguous municipality in Norway since the municipality of ...

Vestland Vestland is a county in Norway established on 1 January 2020. The county is located in Western Norway and it is centred around the city of Bergen, Norway's second largest city. The administrative centre of the county is the city of Bergen, whe ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. It is located in the village of

Stavang Stavang is a village in Kinn Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The village is located on the mainland at the mouth of the Førdefjorden, where it empties into the Brufjorden, about straight southeast of the town of Florø. The islands ...

. It is the main church for the Bru

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

which is part of the

Sunnfjord prosti Sunnfjord ( en, the southern fjord - in contrast to Nordfjord) is a traditional district in Western Norway located in Vestland county. It includes the municipalities of Askvoll is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in ...

(

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 reside ...

) in the

Diocese of Bjørgvin The Diocese of Bjørgvin ( no, Bjørgvin bispedømme) 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. The cathedral city is Bergen, Norway's second ...

. The whitewashed brick church was built in a

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 ...

design in 1957 using plans drawn up by the

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 ...

Ole Halvorsen from

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula o ...

. The church seats about 312 people.

History

The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1322, but the church was not new at that time. Historically, the church was known as ''Bru Church'' and it was located on the island of

Svanøya Svanøy (also called Svanøyna and Brulandet) is an island in the municipality of Kinn in Vestland county, Norway. The island is located in the Sunnfjord district of the county. The island lies just to the west of the mainland, in the mouth of the ...

(the island was historically known as ''Bru'' or ''Brulandet'') which is why the parish was named after the island. Over time, the island was renamed ''Svanøya'', but the parish name remained. The first church for Bru was a wooden

stave church A stave church is a medieval wooden Christian church building once common in north-western Europe. The name derives from the building's structure of post and lintel construction, a type of timber framing where the load-bearing ore-pine posts ...

stood for centuries on the island, likely being built during the 12th century. During the first half of the 1600s, the church was torn down and replaced with a

timber-framed Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

building with a

cruciform Cruciform is a term for physical manifestations resembling a common cross or Christian cross. The label can be extended to architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly described ...

floor plan. By the 1800s, the old Bru Church was in bad condition and needed repair. In the 1860s, the parish council decided to build a new church and a

vicarage A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of religion. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, parsonage, rectory or vicarage. Function A clergy house is typically o ...

for Bru parish, but rather than replace the church on the island of Svanøya, they would build it on the mainland and tear down the old church on Svanøya. A new wooden church, known as ''Stavang Church'' was built in 1873 in the village of

on the mainland. It was designed by the

Christian Christie Eilert Christian Brodtkorb Christie (24 December 1832 – 13 September 1906) was a Norwegian architect. Personal life He was born in Bergen as a son of customs officer Werner Hosewinckel Christie (1785–1872) and Hansine Langsted (1802–1864 ...

and the lead builder was John Alver. The new church was

consecrated Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...

23 April 1873. It was a wooden

. This new church, however, did not last very long. On the day before

Christmas Eve Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas Day, the festival commemorating the birth of Jesus. Christmas Day is observed around the world, and Christmas Eve is widely observed as a full or partial holiday in anticipati ...

1951, it was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. Fortunately, the

altarpiece An altarpiece is an artwork such as a painting, sculpture or relief representing a religious subject made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting ...

and some of the silver decorations were saved from the fire. Due to the tremendous amount of rebuilding after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, it took about six years before a new church was completed. The Stavang Church was the first church to be built in the county after World War II. In the meantime, the local school building was used for church functions. The church was designed by Ole Halvorsen. Andreas Hjelmeland was responsible for the masonry work during the construction and Jan Arvidson was responsible for the woodwork. The new building was a brick

. The brick walls are plastered and painted white both outside and inside. The new church was

consecrate Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...

d on 16 June 1957, by Bishop

Ragnvald Indrebø Ragnvald Andreas Indrebø (22 November 1891–26 June 1984) was a Norwegian Lutheran Bishop. He was born in Os. He was part of the movement to translate the Norwegian Bible into the Nynorsk written language during the 1930s. He edited the peri ...

Building

Stavang Church is one of the three brick churches in the county, the two others being Svelgen Chapel and

Farnes Church Farnes Church ( no, Farnes kyrkje) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Årdal Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the village of Øvre Årdal. It is the church for the Øvre Årdal parish which is part of the Sogn p ...

. The exterior and interior walls are

whitewash Whitewash, or calcimine, kalsomine, calsomine, or lime paint is a type of paint made from slaked lime (calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2) or chalk calcium carbonate, (CaCO3), sometimes known as "whiting". Various other additives are sometimes used. ...

ed. Towards the north, an addition has been built containing a large meeting room for the congregation. The church has four big, high windows on either side of the

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-typ ...

, and the

is a colourful

stained-glass window Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

on the back wall of the

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

. The old church on the island of Svanøya also had some fine stained-glass windows, so this type of decoration has been a tradition in the parish for a long time. There is a richly coloured

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

on the

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

also. The total building costs in 1957 amounted to plus another for the

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

. For the consecration ceremony, 90 boats anchored up in the harbour, and 1500 people wanted to get inside the church, but most of them had to listen to the sermon through loudspeakers outside.

References

{{use dmy dates, date=September 2021 Kinn Churches in Vestland Long churches in Norway Brick churches in Norway 20th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1957 12th-century establishments in Norway

History

Building

See also

References