Borgestad Church ( no, Borgestad kirke) 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 ...

Skien Municipality Skien () is a city and municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county in Norway. In modern times it is regarded as part of the traditional region of Grenland, although historically it belonged to Grenmar/Skiensfjorden, while Grenland referred the Nors ...

Telemark Telemark is a traditional region, a former county, and a current electoral district in southern Norway. In 2020, Telemark merged with the former county of Vestfold to form the county of Vestfold og Telemark. Telemark borders the traditional ...

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 Borgestad. It is the church for the Borgestad

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

Skien prosti This list of churches in Agder og Telemark is a list of the Church of Norway churches in the Diocese of Agder og Telemark in Agder and Vestfold og Telemark counties in southern Norway. The diocese is based at the Kristiansand Cathedral in the cit ...

(

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 Agder og Telemark The Diocese of Agder og Telemark ( no, Agder og Telemark bispedømme) is a diocese of the Church of Norway, covering all of Agder county and most of Vestfold og Telemark county in Norway. The cathedral city is Kristiansand, Norway's fifth larges ...

. The white, stone 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 1907 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 ...

Henrik Nissen. The church seats about 382 people.

History

The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1398, but the church was not built that year. The church was probably located on a site about to the southwest of the present church site. Very little is known about that church and it was likely closed down by the sometime before the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

. In the early 1900s, Prime Minister

Gunnar Knudsen Gunnar Knudsen (19 September 1848 – 1 December 1928), born Aanon Gunerius Knudsen, was a Norwegian politician from the Liberal Party who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Norway twice from 1908 to 1910 and from 1913 to 1920. He also inherited ...

gave land and financed the construction of a new church in Borgestad. The new building was designed by Henrik Nissen. Construction of the new building began in the winter of 1903–1904 and continued until 1906. The new church 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 24 May 1907. The new limestone

was inspired by English country churches. It has an asymmetrically placed bell tower, which was popular at the time. The church has an entrance in the south, and in the north is 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 ...

which is surrounded by vestries. The church was decorated with stained glass by

Emanuel Vigeland Emanuel Vigeland (2 December 1875 – 22 December 1948) was a multitalented Norwegian artist. He is known for a variety of decorations of Scandinavian churches and for ''Tomba Emmanuelle'', his mausoleum at Slemdal in Oslo. His elder brother ...

in 1918–1919 and it was painted inside by

Ulrik Hendriksen Ulrik Adolph Hendriksen (March 7, 1891 – January 24, 1960) was a Danish-Norwegian painter and graphic artist. Hendriksen was born in Faaborg, Denmark. He studied restoration techniques at the Berlin Art Academy from 1909 to 1911 and then moved ...

in 1921. The building received electric lighting for its fiftieth anniversary in 1957. In April 2011, there was an

arson Arson is the crime of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, wat ...

attempt on a bench outside Borgestad church, this was the same night that the

Østre Porsgrunn Church Østre Porsgrunn Church (full name: ''Jesu Kirke i Østre Porsgrunn'', also called Østsiden Church) was a church in the Rococo style built in 1760 and located in the city of Porsgrunn in Vestfold og Telemark, Norway. In 2011 the building was comp ...

burned down due to arson.

Media gallery

Borgestad kirke 20071014 01.jpg Borgestad kirke 20071014 02.jpg Borgestad kirke, sett fra absiden.jpg Borgestad kirke, Skien kommune, Telemark.jpg

References

{{use dmy dates, date=December 2022 Buildings and structures in Skien Churches in Telemark Long churches in Norway Stone churches in Norway 20th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1907 1907 establishments in Norway

History

Media gallery

See also

References