Vang kirke ved Hamar på Hedemarken i Hedmark - Norway 2

Abraham Pihl (3 October 1756 – 20 May 1821) was a Norwegian clergyman, astronomer, and architect.

Biography

Abraham Pihl was born in

Gausdal Gausdal is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Segalstad bru. Other villages in Gausdal include Follebu, Forse ...

, in

Oppland Oppland is a former county in Norway which existed from 1781 until its dissolution on 1 January 2020. The old Oppland county bordered the counties of Trøndelag, Møre og Romsdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Akershus, Oslo and Hedmark. The c ...

county, Norway. He completed priest study at the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public research university in Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia after Uppsala Unive ...

in 1783 where he had also studied mathematics, mechanics and astronomy. In 1784, Pihl became vicar at

Flekkefjord is a municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Lister. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Flekkefjord. The villages of Sira, Gyland, Rasvåg, Kirkehavn, and Åna-Sira are ...

in the county of

Vest-Agder Vest-Agder (; "West Agder") was one of 18 counties (''fylker'') in Norway up until 1 January 2020, when it was merged with Aust-Agder to form Agder county. In 2016, there were 182,701 inhabitants, around 3.5% of the total population of Norway. I ...

. From 1785 he was appointed as Denmark-Norway astronomical observer in Norway. In 1789, he was appointed to serve as priest in the parish of Vang in

Hedmark Hedmark () was a county in Norway before 1 January 2020, bordering Trøndelag to the north, Oppland to the west, Akershus to the south, and Sweden to the east. The county administration is in Hamar. Hedmark and Oppland counties were merged int ...

(''Vang kirke, Hamar'') where he would serve until his death in 1821. When Vang church burned down in 1804, Pihl designed the new church and oversaw construction work. The church has an octagonal shape and is with 1000 seats the second largest of Norway's

octagonal churches 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, wh ...

. The building later served as a model for octagonal churches the western side of Mjøsa. Pihl developed a large collection of self-made astronomical instruments, and also made telescopes and sextants for others. He designed Vang church which had burned down and was rebuilt between 1804 and 1810. He started large-scale production of pendulum clocks. The rectory became the largest employer in Vang, with up to 140 persons employed. His interest in practical matters categorized him as a so-called " potato priest" ( no, potetprest).

Honors

He was decorated Knight of the

Order of Dannebrog The Order of the Dannebrog ( da, Dannebrogordenen) is a Danish order of chivalry instituted in 1671 by Christian V. Until 1808, membership in the order was limited to fifty members of noble or royal rank, who formed a single class known ...

in 1809 for his scientific efforts.

Personal life

His father Andreas Pihl (1726–1781) was vicar of

. His grandfather Joachim Pihl (1689–1762) was provost for

Gudbrandsdalen Gudbrandsdalen (; en, Gudbrand Valley) is a valley and traditional district in the Norwegian county of Innlandet (formerly Oppland). The valley is oriented in a north-westerly direction from Lillehammer and the lake of Mjøsa, extending towa ...

. In 1784, he married Anna Cathrine Neumann (1764–1850), daughter of Jacob Neumann, who operated the Hassel Iron Works in Modum. They were the parents of eight children and were the grandparents of engineers Oluf Pihl and

Carl Abraham Pihl Carl Abraham Pihl (16 January 1825 – 14 September 1897) was a Norwegian civil engineer and director of the Norwegian State Railways (NSB) from 1865 until his death. Pihl was one of the main architects of the use of narrow-gauge railways in No ...

.Gunnar Nerheim: ''Oluf Pihl, Ingeniør og Kraftutbygger'' (Norsk biografisk leksikon)
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References

Other sources

*Imerslund, Knut (2010) ''Abraham Pihl - prest, prost og tusenkunstner'' (Oplandske Bokforlag)

External links

''Vang kirke, Hamar''
1756 births 1821 deaths People from Gausdal 19th-century Norwegian Lutheran clergy Norwegian astronomers 18th-century Norwegian architects University of Copenhagen alumni Knights of the Order of the Dannebrog 18th-century Norwegian Lutheran clergy 19th-century Norwegian architects Norwegian ecclesiastical architects {{norway-reli-bio-stub