Trinity Church (in Norwegian, Trefoldighetskirken), is a church in the

Hammersborg St. Hanshaugen (Norwegian for St. John's Hill) is a borough of the city of Oslo, Norway. Area It has a triangular shape, with its northern border just north of the buildings of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation and Ullevål University Hosp ...

neighborhood in central

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

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 ...

. Trinity Church is neighbor of the government buildings in

Regjeringskvartalet Regjeringskvartalet (the Government Quarter) is a collection of buildings located in the centre of Norway's capital city Oslo, housing several offices for the Norwegian Government. The complex is situated approximately 300m northeast of the Pa ...

. It is the parish church of the parish of Trinity, belonging to 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's five traditional bishoprics and was founded around the year 1070. History Oslo was established as a diocese ...

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 ...

. It is one of the largest churches in Oslo (1000 seats). The church itself is in the raw red brick, while the

vault Vault may refer to: * Jumping, the act of propelling oneself upwards Architecture * Vault (architecture), an arched form above an enclosed space * Bank vault, a reinforced room or compartment where valuables are stored * Burial vault (enclosur ...

s, arches and small

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

s have gray scale color. 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-type ...

octagon In geometry, an octagon () is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, which alternates two types of edges. A truncated octagon, t is a ...

al with a Greek cross superimposed, with the

choir A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

in the

apse In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...

, shallow

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform ("cross-shaped") cruciform plan, churches, in particular within the Romanesque architecture, Romanesque a ...

and

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 ...

entrance flanked by two

slender Slender may refer to: Term * Gracility or slenderness Literature * Abraham Slender, a character in William Shakespeare's ''The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Merry Wives of Winsor'' Slender Man *Slender Man, a fictional supernatural character * ...

, octagonal

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell to ...

s. A central

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

rises above the church. Trinity Church is the largest church in Oslo and one of the largest of the many

octagonal churches in Norway An octagonal church has an octagonal (eight-sided polygon) architectural plan. The exterior and the interior (the nave) may be shaped as eight-sided polygon with approximately equal sides or only the nave is eight-sided supplemented by choir and ...

, but one of few octagonal churches constructed in red brick. Trefoldighetskirken in Oslo

History

Trinity Church was consecrated in 1858 by Bishop

Jens Lauritz Arup Jens Lauritz Arup (20 April 1793 – 9 April 1874) was a Norwegian bishop and politician. He was born at Kristiansand in Vest-Agder, Norway. His father was a sexton and a school teacher. In 1811 Arup was sent to Copenhagen to study, but had ...

. The church has a

neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

central plan, with ''two towers'' and eight-sided dome, and was designed by architect

Alexis de Chateauneuf Alexis de Chateauneuf (1799–1853) was a German architect and city planner from Hamburg.Alexis de Chateauneuf

(

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

), but some time after the work was entrusted to his pupil

Wilhelm von Hanno Andreas Friedrich Wilhelm von Hanno (15 December 1826 – 12 December 1882) was a German-born Norwegian architect, sculptor and painter. He was among the leading architects in Norway during the middle of the 1800s. Biography Wilhelm von Hann ...

, who made some modifications to the original plans and put his personal stamp on the details of interior decoration. The main body (1872) is the work of

Claus Jensen Claus William Jensen (; born 29 April 1977) is a Danish professional football manager, and former player. During his active playing career, he played as an attacking midfielder for homeland clubs Næstved and Lyngby, as well as three other clubs ...

, the

altarpiece An altarpiece is a painting or sculpture, including relief, of religious subject matter 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 or sculpture, ...

(1866) is a painting by

Adolph Tidemand Adolph Tidemand (14 August 18148 August 1876) was a noted Norwegian romantic nationalism painter. Among his best known paintings are ''Haugianerne'' (''The Haugeans''; 1852) and '' Brudeferd i Hardanger'' (''The Bridal Procession in Hardanger' ...

(the

Baptism Baptism (from ) is a Christians, Christian sacrament of initiation almost invariably with the use of water. It may be performed by aspersion, sprinkling or affusion, pouring water on the head, or by immersion baptism, immersing in water eit ...

of Jesus),

chandelier A chandelier () is an ornamental lighting device, typically with spreading branched supports for multiple lights, designed to be hung from the ceiling. Chandeliers are often ornate, and they were originally designed to hold candles, but now inca ...

s were designed by

Emanuel Vigeland Emanuel Vigeland (2 December 1875 – 22 December 1948) was a multitalented Norway, Norwegian artist. He is known for a variety of decorations of Scandinavian churches and for ''Tomba Emmanuelle'', his mausoleum at Slemdal in Oslo. His elder ...

in 1923, and

Frøydis Haavardsholm Frøydis Haavardsholm (1 April 1896 – 3 October 1984) was a Norway, Norwegian visual artist and book illustrator. Biography She was born at Tromsø in Troms, Norway. Her parents were Amund Haavardsholm (1860–1948) and Josefine Nielsen (1872� ...

was the designer of the

stained glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

windows.Jens Christian Eldal and Kiri Havran: Kirker i Norge, volume 3: Med historiske forbilder. 1800-tallet (ARFO, 2002), page 120-123 In Norwegian

Gallery: Interior

File:Trefoldighetskirken - 06.jpg, Interior File:Trefoldighetskirken Alterbilde.JPG, The altarpiece by

File:Trefoldighetskirken Døpefont engel1.JPG,

Baptismal font A baptismal font is an Church architecture, ecclesiastical architectural element, which serves as a receptacle for baptismal water used for baptism, as a part of Christian initiation for both rites of Infant baptism, infant and Believer's bapti ...

File:Trefoldighetskirken Engel og lysekrone.JPG, The

in Trinity Church. Created by

File:Trefoldighetskirken Kapitèl galeri.JPG, Detail of a

capital (architecture) In architecture, the capital () or chapiter forms the topmost member of a column (or a pilaster). It mediates between the column and the load thrusting down upon it, broadening the area of the column's supporting surface. The capital, projecti ...

Gallery: Stained glass

File:Trefoldighetskirken Glassmaleri Israel.JPG, "The history of Israel" File:Trefoldighetskirken Glassmaleri Lidelseshistorien.JPG, "Jesus suffering" File:Trefoldighetskirken Glassmaleri skapelsen.JPG, "The creation" File:Trefoldighetskirken Glassmaleri såkorn.JPG, "''The wheat grain''" File:Trefoldighetskirken Glassmaleri perlen.JPG, "''The pearl''" File:Trefoldighetskirken Glassmaleri Livets vann.JPG, "''The water of life''" File:Trefoldighetskirken Glassmaleri Livets tre.JPG, "''The tree of life''"

External links

Official website in Norwegian

References

{{Churches in Oslo arch-deanery Lutheran churches in Oslo Churches completed in 1858 1858 establishments in Norway 19th-century Church of Norway church buildings Trinity Churches in Norway Octagonal churches in Norway Cruciform churches in Norway Church buildings with domes

History

See also

Gallery: Interior

Gallery: Stained glass

External links

References