Ålen Church ( no, Ålen kirke) 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 activities, ...

of the Church of Norway in Holtålen municipality in

Trøndelag Trøndelag (; sma, Trööndelage) is a county in the central part of Norway. It was created in 1687, then named Trondhjem County ( no, Trondhjems Amt); in 1804 the county was split into Nord-Trøndelag and Sør-Trøndelag by the King of Denma ...

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 the ...

. It is located in the village of

Renbygda Renbygda is the administrative centre of the municipality of Holtålen in Trøndelag county, Norway. The village is located along the Gaula River and the Rørosbanen railway line, about north of the town of Røros and about southeast of the ...

. It is the church for the Ålen

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 o ...

which is part of the

Gauldal prosti This list of churches in Nidaros is a list of the Church of Norway churches in the Diocese of Nidaros which covers all of Trøndelag county in Norway. The list is divided into several sections, one for each deanery in the diocese. Administra ...

( deanery) in the

Diocese of Nidaros Nidaros is a diocese in the Lutheran Church of Norway. It covers Trøndelag county in Central Norway and its cathedral city is Trondheim, which houses the well-known Nidaros Cathedral. Since 10 September 2017, the Bishop of Nidaros is Herbor ...

. The white, wooden church was built in a

neo-gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

long church style in 1881 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 ...

Jacob Digre Jacob Digre (1811–1891) was a Norwegian architect and builder. Digre's firm was one of the largest construction companies in Northern Norway. He built and designed several monumental buildings in Trondheim including Hjorten, Frimurerlogen, ...

. The church seats about 322 people.

History

The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1381, but the church was not new that year. The first church in Ålen was a

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 ar ...

that was located about northwest of the present day church site (roughly the middle of the cemetery). The church was likely first built in the 12th century. The stave 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-type ...

with 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. Ov ...

. The total floor plan was approximately which was close to double what the old Haltdalen Stave Church had. From 1674 to 1676, the church was significantly expanded by adding a new

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 woode ...

to the old stave church. The old nave from the older church was converted into the new

. The old chancel was remodeled as a new sacristy. Additionally, the church had a cross-arm (

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building wi ...

) added to the north side of the new nave. In 1881, a new church was constructed about to the southeast of the old stave church. The church was designed by Johan Digre. It was consecrated on 15 September 1881. After the new church was completed, the old church was mostly torn down. The only part that was saved was the small entry porch which originally had been built around 1675. Some of the interior decor elements from the old church were saved and sent to museum in

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...

. The pulpit from 1705 and an altarpiece from the 17th century were later sent to the newly built Hessdalen Church in 1940.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aalen Church Holtålen Churches in Trøndelag Long churches in Norway Wooden churches in Norway 19th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1881 12th-century establishments in Norway

History

See also

References