Bagn Church ( no, Bagn kyrkje) 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

Sør-Aurdal Municipality Sør-Aurdal 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 Bagn. Other villages in the municipality include Begna, Hedalen, a ...

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

Bagn Bagn is the administrative centre of Sør-Aurdal Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. The village is located in the Begnadalen valley, about to the southeast of the town of Fagernes. The river Begna runs through the village on its way th ...

. It is the church for the Bagn

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 red, wooden church was built in a

cruciform Cruciform is a term for physical manifestations resembling a common cross or Christian cross. The label can be extended to architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly describe ...

design in 1736 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 ...

Svend Tråseth Svend Tråseth (1699—1769) was a Norwegian architect and builder in the Gudbrandsdalen and Valdres areas of Eastern Norway. At that time in Norway, spellings had not been standardized, so his last name is often spelled differently including ...

. The church seats about 350 people.

History

The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1327, but the church was not built that year. The first church was a 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 ...

that was likely built during the 13th century. This church was located about to the northeast of the present church site at Ule (so that church was sometimes known as the Ule Stave Church). Very little is known about the old church. Sometime before 1683, the old church was closed. The old church stood for a long time afterwards, falling into disrepair. For a while, there was no church in Bagn and parishioners had to travel to the Reinli Stave Church. After about 50 years or so of no church in Bagn, the old Reinli Stave Church was also in poor condition, so the parish made plans to tear down that church as well and to build a new church in Bagn to serve both Bagn and Reinli. Permission was granted for this plan, but there was significant local opposition and protests, so the plan was cancelled. The parish then decided to build a new Bagn church and keep the old Reinli church too.

was hired to design and build the new Bagn Church on a site about southwest of the medieval church site. It was a

design with a

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...

in the eastern wing. Local tradition states that some of the materials from the old stave church were salvaged from the old, unused, decaying building and used in the construction of the new church. Bagn Church was built in 1735-1736 and it was consecrated on 1 November 1736. In 1814, this church served as an

election church An election church ( no, valgkirke) is a term used for approximately 300 churches in Norway that were used as polling stations during the elections to the Norwegian Constituent Assembly at Eidsvoll in 1814. This was Norway's first national election ...

( no, valgkirke). Together with more than 300 other parish churches across Norway, it was a polling station for elections to the 1814

Norwegian Constituent Assembly The Norwegian Constituent Assembly (in Norwegian ''Grunnlovsforsamlingen'', also known as ''Riksforsamlingen'') is the name given to the 1814 constitutional assembly at Eidsvoll in Norway, that adopted the Norwegian Constitution and formalised t ...

which wrote the Constitution of Norway. This was Norway's first national elections. Each

church 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 ...

was a constituency that elected people called "electors" who later met together in each county to elect the representatives for the assembly that was to meet in

Eidsvoll Eidsvoll (; sometimes written as ''Eidsvold'') is a municipality in Akershus in Viken county, Norway. It is part of the Romerike traditional region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Sundet. General information ...

later that year. The church has undergone several extensive renovations and repairs. In 1833, extensive work was done on choir. In 1840, a sacristy extension was built to the east of the choir. In 1897, the structure was extensively rebuilt which included adding interior and exterior siding to cover the

log building Log buildings and structures can be categorized as historic and modern. A diverse selection of their forms and styles with examples of architectural elements is discussed in the following articles: *Log cabin – a rustic dwelling *Log house – a ...

structure. New, larger windows were added and much of the interior was renewed and painted in new colors.

Media gallery

Bagn kirke (Valdres) - no-nb digifoto 20160720 00170 NB MIT FNR 22972 (cropped).jpg, View of the church in 1967 Bagn 1887 - no-nb digifoto 20151217 00005 blds 07672.jpg, View of the church in 1887 Bagn gamle kirkested.jpg, Site of the old church

References

{{use dmy dates, date=January 2022 Sør-Aurdal Churches in Innlandet Cruciform churches in Norway Wooden churches in Norway 18th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1736 13th-century establishments in Norway Norwegian election church

History

Media gallery

See also

References