Øye Stave Church ( no, Øye stavkyrkje) 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

Vang Municipality Vang is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Valdres. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Vang i Valdres. Other villages in Vang include Hænsgardane, Nystuen, Ø ...

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

. It is located in the village of Øye. It is one of the churches for the Øye

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

Valdres prosti The list of churches in Hamar is a list of the Church of Norway churches in the Diocese of Hamar which includes all of Innlandet county (plus two municipalities in Viken (county), Viken county) in Norway. The list is divided into several sections ...

( deanery) in the Diocese of Hamar. The brown, wooden

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 ...

was built in a long church design in 1965 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 ...

Ole Øvergaard Ole Bernhard Øvergaard (29 November 1893 – 30 June 1972) was a Norwegian architect. Ole Bernhard Øvergaard was born at Fredrikstad in Østfold, Norway. He graduated from the Norwegian Institute of Technology in 1916. Øvergaard worked as as ...

using pieces salvaged from the old 12th century church that had originally been torn down in 1747. The church seats about 30 people.

History

The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1347, but the church was not new that year. The first church in Øye was a wooden

that was built in the late 12th century, likely around the years 1180–1200. This church was located on the flat land along the shore of the lake

Vangsmjøse Vangsmjøse (also spelled as ''Vangsmjøsa'' or ''Vangsmjøsi'') is a lake in Vang Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. The lake has an area of and it has a maximum depth of about deep. A local myth says that if a raw ham is lowered into t ...

, about northwest of the present Øye Church. This location was problematic over the years. The land was somewhat boggy and the nearby river Rødøla would flood almost every spring and this led to grave sites being disturbed (legend says the coffins would sometimes float to the surface during the flooding). By the 1660s, the church was said to be in poor condition. In 1747, the old church was torn down and a new Øye Church was built about to the southeast of the old site. In 1935, the new Øye Church was being renovated and part of the foundation wall was removed. Under the floor, workers found 156 pieces of the old stave church that had been salvaged after the demolition of the old stave church in 1747. The pieces included some of the staves, foundation pillars, framing, and decorative pieces. No one knew they were there and no one knew why they were saved there. After this discovery, the materials were saved and plans were made to reconstruct the old stave church. The architect

designed a reconstruction proposal for the church in 1950. The plans called for using many of the parts discovered in 1935 as well as some parts from the

Heddal Stave Church Heddal Stave Church ( nb, Heddal stavkirke, nn, Heddal stavkyrkje) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Notodden Municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county, Norway. It is located in the village of Heddal. It is the church for the Hedd ...

as well as some new materials. The parish decided to build the reconstruction about north of the present Øye Church (since the old church site was still not suited for building). The construction was completed and the church was consecrated on 1 August 1965 by the Bishop Alexander Lange Johnson. Historic artifacts include a medieval doorbell, a crucifix from the 13th century with a figure of Christ and a wooden baptismal font from the 1300s.

Media gallery

Øye stavkirke, 2005-11-05, 01.jpg Øye stavkirke, 2005-11-05, 03.jpg Øye stavkyrkje 01.JPG Øye stavkirke.JPG ØYE STAVKIRKE - an10071112161101.jpg, Round wooden baptismal font

References

External links

Øye Stave Church at Stavkirke.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oye Stave Church Vang, Oppland Churches in Innlandet Stave churches in Norway Long churches in Norway Wooden churches in Norway 12th-century churches in Norway 12th-century establishments in Norway 18th-century disestablishments in Norway 1965 establishments in Norway

History

Media gallery

See also

References

Related reading

External links