Ålvundeid Church ( no, Ålvundeid 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 The Church of Norway ( nb, Den norske kirke, nn, Den norske kyrkja, se, Norgga girku, sma, Nöörjen gærhkoe) is an evangelical Lutheran denomination of Protestant Christianity and by far the largest Christian church in Norway. The church b ...

Sunndal Municipality is a municipality in the Nordmøre region located in the northeast part of Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Sunndalsøra. Other villages include Gjøra, Grøa, Hoelsand, Jordalsgre ...

Møre og Romsdal Møre og Romsdal (; en, Møre and Romsdal) is a county in the northernmost part of Western Norway. It borders the counties of Trøndelag, Innlandet, and Vestland. The county administration is located in the town of Molde, while Ålesund is the ...

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

Ålvundeidet Ålvundeidet is a village in Sunndal Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The village is located at the western end of the Innerdalen valley on an isthmus between two fjords: Ålvundfjorden and Sunndalsfjorden. The village area is ...

. It is the church for the Ålvundeid

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 m ...

which is part of the

Indre Nordmøre prosti Indre (; oc, Endre) is a landlocked department in central France named after the river Indre. The inhabitants of the department are known as the ''Indriens'' (masculine; ) and ''Indriennes'' (feminine; ). Indre is part of the current administra ...

(

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 residenc ...

) in the

Diocese of Møre The Diocese of Møre ( no, Møre bispedømme) is a diocese in the Church of Norway which geographically consists of Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. Its bishop is seated at the Molde Cathedral which is located in the county administrative center ...

. The red, wooden church was built in an

octagonal In geometry, an octagon (from the Greek ὀκτάγωνον ''oktágōnon'', "eight angles") 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, whi ...

style in 1848 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 Pedersen Tøfte. The church seats about 230 people.

History

The earliest existing historical records of a church in the

Ålvund Ålvund is a village in Sunndal Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located at the beginning of the Ålvundfjorden (an extension of the Trongfjorden, about northwest of the village of Ålvundeidet and the Innerdalen valley. ...

area date back to 1309, but the church was not new that year. The first church was located in the village of

, about north of the present location in Ålvundeid. The old church may have been 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 a ...

that was built in the 13th century, but no physical description of the church exists. The old church was part of the Stangvik Church parish and served as an annex church for that parish. The old church was closed and torn down at some point, likely before 1589, and then for some time there was no church here. In 1838, the new municipality of

Øksendal Øksendal is a former municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1854 until its dissolution in 1960. It had one of the smallest municipal populations in Norway. It was located in the northern part of the pre ...

was established and this area became part of that municipality and a part of the Øksendal Church parish. The people of the Ålvundeid area desired their own church so they didn't need to boat across a fjord to attend church services. On 31 March 1847, a royal decree approved the construction of a church in Ålvundeid. The new church was built in 1848 on a new site in

Ålvundeid Ålvundeid is a former municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1899 until its dissolution in 1960. It had one of the smallest municipal populations in Norway. It was located in the northern part of the p ...

, about south of the old medieval church site. It was designed by Ole Pedersen Tøfte. It is an octagonal, wooden church with a tower on the centre 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-type ...

. The 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 ...

on 1 November 1848. In 1865, the Ålvundeid area was split off as its own parish. In 1955,

Roar Tønseth Roar Tønseth (1895—1985) was a Norwegian architect. He had an unusually long career as an architect, stretching from before 1920 to the early 1980s. Roar Tønseth was the son of Johannes Tønseth (1860-1896) and Henrikke Ryjord (1869-1940 ...

designed and built a

sacristy A sacristy, also known as a vestry or preparation room, is a room in Christian churches for the keeping of vestments (such as the alb and chasuble) and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records. The sacristy is usually located ...

and

church porch A church porch is a room-like structure at a church's main entrance. A porch protects from the weather to some extent. Some porches have an outer door, others a simple gate, and in some cases the outer opening is not closed in any way. The porch ...

were added to the east and west side of the building, respectively.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aalvundeid Church Sunndal Churches in Møre og Romsdal Wooden churches in Norway Octagonal churches in Norway 19th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1848 13th-century establishments in Norway 16th-century disestablishments in Norway 1848 establishments in Norway

History

See also

References