Stødle Church ( no, Stødle 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. ...

in Etne Municipality in

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

Etnesjøen Etnesjøen or Etne is the administrative centre of Etne municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The village is located at the inner end of the Etnefjorden, along the European route E134 highway, about south of the village of Skånevik and ...

. It is one of the churches for the Etne

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 Sunnhordland 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 reside ...

) in the Diocese of Bjørgvin. The white, stone and wood church was built in a long church design in 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 has been renovated and expanded several times over the centuries, and it currently seats about 245 people.

History

The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1329, but the church was not new that year. The original stone church had a rectangular

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 a narrower, rectangular

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. ...

. This building was likely built around the year 1160. It is believed that the church may have originally been a private church for the family of Erling Skakke, a Norwegian Jarl, who lived in Stødle during the 12th century. In the early 1600s (possibly in 1615), the old stone church was enlarged by adding a new

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 ...

wooden addition to the west end of the building. The new addition became the new nave. The old nave was then redesigned as a

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which s ...

and the old choir became a sacristy. In 1690, the old wooden nave was torn down and a new, larger timber-framed nave was built on the same site. This construction project was built by Askild Tepstad and Erik Eide. The church was purchased by J.F. Tuchsen during the Norwegian church sale in 1723, when the King sold many churches to pay for the expenses from the

Great Northern War The Great Northern War (1700–1721) was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swed ...

. After several different private owners, the church was purchased by the parish in 1860 and was no longer privately owned. In 1879, a new church porch with a tower above it was built on the west end of the building. In 1957–1958, the church underwent a major renovation, which included widening the church porch located under the tower to add a sacristy and a bathroom.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stodle Church Etne Churches in Vestland Long churches in Norway Stone churches in Norway 12th-century churches in Norway Churches completed in the 1160s 12th-century establishments in Norway

History

See also

References