Øyjar Chapel ( no, Øyjar kapell) 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 ...

Vestre Slidre Municipality Vestre Slidre 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 Slidre. Other villages in Vestre Slidre include Lomen and Røn. ...

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 t ...

. It is located in the village of Øyjar. It is one of the churches for the Røn

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

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 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 Hamar The Diocese of Hamar ( no, Hamar Bispedømme) 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 in Viken county. Administratively, the diocese is divided ...

. The brown, wooden church was built in a

long church Church building in Norway began when 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 instance under Urnes Stave C ...

design in 1964 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 ...

Karl Stenersen. The church seats about 80 people.

History

The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1316, but the church was not new that year. The first church at Øyjar was likely 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 ...

that was built in the 1000s (11th century). This church was located immediately north of the present-day Øyjar Chapel. It likely burned down during the late-13th century. Right after this, a new 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 a ...

was built on the same site. The old church had a

design with a tower on the roof 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 ...

and open-air corridors surrounding the building. Historically, the spelling of the church name has varied, including ''Øyjar'', ''Øyar'', ''Øye'', and others. During the 1600s, the church was repaired due to rot. In the 1740s, the parish decided to close and merge two churches (Øyjar Church and Fystro Church), which were located on either side of the

Slidrefjorden Slidrefjord or Slidrefjorden ( en, Slidre Fjord) is a lake that lies in Vestre Slidre Municipality (and the far northwestern end of the lake lies in Vang Municipality) in Innlandet county, Norway. The lake is not an actual fjord, just a lake that ...

, and to replace them with one church that would be newly built at the village of

Røn Røn is a village in Vestre Slidre Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. The village is located where the Slidrefjorden and the Strondafjorden meet, about south of the village of Slidre. The European route E16 highway runs through the villag ...

. The new Røn Church was built in 1747 and the other two churches were torn down afterwards. After the demolition of the old Øyjar Church, the cemetery that surrounded the church continued to be used for centuries. In 1956, a planning committee was established to plan a new church on the old site. In 1962, permission was given to build a new chapel at the old church site. The chapel was designed by Karl Stenersen and the lead builder was Lars Wiknes. It is a

with a rectangular nave and 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. Ove ...

. There is 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 ...

on either side of the chancel. The chapel 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 12 April 1964. The chapel is not actually considered a chapel, but it has the status of a parish church - one of two churches in the Røn parish, so it is sometimes called Øyjar Church as well. In 1965, the old church site, just north of the new chapel was investigated by the historian Luce Hinsch. Traces of the old foundation were unearthed, but they were so badly damaged by more recent burials that the size of the church could not be determined. About 20 coins from the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

were found on the old church site. About half of the coins were dated to about 1250–1350. Underneath the foundation that was discovered, there was evidence of a fire of a previous structure. Radiological dating shows that the preceding structure was from the 1000s. This supports the theory that the first church burned sometime around the year 1300 and a new church was built.

References

{{use dmy dates, date=January 2022 Vestre Slidre Churches in Innlandet Long churches in Norway Wooden churches in Norway 20th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1964 11th-century establishments in Norway 18th-century disestablishments in Norway 1964 establishments in Norway

History

See also

References