Tretten 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 ...

Øyer Municipality Øyer is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Tin ...

Innlandet Innlandet is a Counties of Norway, county in Norway. It was created on 1 January 2020 with the merger of the old counties of Oppland and Hedmark (Jevnaker Municipality and Lunner Municipality were transferred to the neighboring county of Viken ( ...

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

Tretten Tretten is a village in Øyer Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. The village is located on the Losna lake, which is part of the Gudbrandsdalslågen river. Tretten is located in the Gudbrandsdal valley, along the Gudbrandsdalslågen r ...

. It is the church for the Tretten

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

Sør-Gudbrandsdal prosti The list of churches in Hamar is a list of the Church of Norway churches in the Diocese of Hamar in Norway. It includes all of the parishes in Innlandet county plus the parishes in Lunner Municipality in Akershus county. The diocese is based at th ...

(

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 Hamar The Diocese of Hamar () is a diocese within the Church of Norway. The Diocese of Hamar includes all of the churches in Innlandet county plus the churches in Lunner Municipality in Akershus county. Administratively, the diocese is divided into 1 ...

. The white, wooden church was built in a

cruciform A cruciform is a physical manifestation resembling a common cross or Christian cross. These include architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly described as having a cruciform ...

design in 1728 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 ...

Jens Skank. The church seats about 300 people. The central tower was removed because of damage in 2000 and placed next to the church.

History

The first known church in Tretten was a stone

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 was likely built during the second half of the 13th century. This church was built at Kjørkehaugen, about northeast of the present church site. (It is possible that there 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 ...

on the site before the stone church, but there is no concrete evidence of this.) By the mid-1500s, the old stone church was in poor condition, so between 1586-1588 a new wooden

was built right next to the old stone church. By the 1720s, a new main road was built through the valley, about to the southwest of the church, and by this time, the old church was getting to be too small for the parish. It was decided at that time to build a new church on a new site, near the new main road. The lead builder was Jens Skanke, the son-in-law of the local parish priest Christian Wolfgang Monrath. The new church was built in 1727-1728 and it was a wooden

building. Some of the stone from the medieval church was reused in the foundation of this new building. The new church 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 12 September 1728. Originally, the church had not tower, just a square base with a pyramid shaped roof on top. In 1774-1775, the church was tarred on the outside and a new slate roof was installed. In 1807, the church exterior was painted red and a tower was installed on the roof. Already in 1819, the tower was having structural problems preventing the ringing of the bell. Many attempts at fixing the tower took place over the years. In 1875, the church exterior was painted white and a couple years after this, the slate roof was replaced with a new slate roof and a zinc top was installed on the tower. Again in 1968, the tower was repaired again to reinforce the structure, but this did not last very long. In 1999-2000, the tower had significant rot damage so the tower had to be removed. The old tower was taken down and installed on the ground adjacent to the church. The tower was not replaced until 2015 when a smaller, more modest tower was installed.

Media gallery

Tretten kirke eksteriør.JPG Tretten kirke.JPG

References

{{use dmy dates, date=December 2021 Øyer Churches in Sør-Gudbrandsdal Deanery Churches in Innlandet Cruciform churches in Norway Wooden churches in Norway 18th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1728 13th-century establishments in Norway

History

Media gallery

See also

References