Bjordal Church ( no, Bjordal 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 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 ...

Høyanger Municipality Høyanger () is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sogn. The administrative center is the village of Høyanger. Other villages in Høyanger municipality include Austreim, Bjordal, Kyrkjebø, ...

Vestland Vestland is a county in Norway established on 1 January 2020. The county is located in Western Norway and it is centred around the city of Bergen, Norway's second largest city. The administrative centre of the county is the city of Bergen, where t ...

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

Bjordal Bjordal is a village in Høyanger Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The village is located along the Fuglsetfjorden, an arm that branches off the main Sognefjorden to the north. The village sits about west of the village of Ortnevik and a ...

. It is one of the two churches for the ''Bjordal og Ortnevik''

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 Sunnfjord prosti (

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 Bjørgvin The Diocese of Bjørgvin ( no, Bjørgvin bispedømme) is one of the 11 dioceses that make up the Church of Norway. It includes all of the churches located in the county of Vestland in Western Norway. The cathedral city is Bergen, Norway's second ...

. The white, 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 1906 using plans drawn up byusing 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 ...

Victor Nordan Victor Nordan (born 13 May 1862 in Christiania, Norway; died 8 May 1933 in Oslo, Norway) was a Norwegian architect, known for his many hospital buildings and also for designing nine churches. Nordan was the son of architect Jacob Wilhelm Norda ...

, the son of the famous Norwegian church architect Jacob Wilhelm Nordan. The church seats about 160 people.

History

The people living around the Fuglesetfjorden had long desired a church of their own. In 1856, the people of Bjordal had petitioned for a church to be built in their village, rather than making the long journey to the Kyrkjebø Church on the other side of the fjord. Again in 1896, the people of Bjordal petitioned the government for their own church. It took three years, but in 1899, the government decided that an annex chapel (not a church) would be built. Planning began and after several years passed the church was completed. It was designed by

and it the lead builder was Jo Hove from

Vik Vik (Old Norse: vík) means wick or bay in Norwegian and Swedish (''vig'' in Danish), and it may refer to the following: Places Iceland *Vík í Mýrdal, a village in southern Iceland Iran *Vik, Iran, a village in Zanjan Province, Iran Norway *V ...

. The church was

consecrate 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 ...

d on 1 November 1906. 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 ...

of the new chapel measured about , the

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 ...

measured about , and the church porch measured about . The church is not large, but it has a picturesque location on a hilltop overlooking the

fjord In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Ice ...

. In 1953, the chapel received electric lighting and then in 1958 electric heating was installed. It originally the status of a chapel (and was named Bjordal Chapel) until 1 January 1997 when it was upgraded to a church. At the same time the new parish of ''Bjordal og Ortnevik'' was created with

Ortnevik Church Ortnevik Church ( no, Ortnevik kyrkje) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Høyanger Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the village of Ortnevik on the south shore of the Sognefjorden. It is one of the two churches ...

and Bjordal Church being the parish churches. This meant that all the people in Høyanger on the south side of the

Sognefjorden The Sognefjord or Sognefjorden (, en, Sogn Fjord), nicknamed the King of the Fjords ( no, Fjordenes konge), is the largest and deepest fjord in Norway. Located in Vestland county in Western Norway, it stretches inland from the ocean to the smal ...

now had their own parish.

References

{{use dmy dates, date=September 2021 Høyanger Churches in Vestland Long churches in Norway Wooden churches in Norway 20th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1906 1906 establishments in Norway

History

See also

References