Dale Church ( no, Dale 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 ...

Vaksdal Municipality is a municipality in the county of Vestland, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Nordhordland. The administrative centre is the village of Dalekvam. Other villages in Vaksdal include Dalegarden, Flatkvål, Helle, Nesheim, S ...

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 Dale. It is the church for the Dale

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

Hardanger og Voss prosti Hardanger is a traditional district in the western part of Norway, dominated by the Hardangerfjord and its inner branches of the Sørfjorden and the Eid Fjord. It consists of the municipalities of Ullensvang, Eidfjord, Ulvik and Kvam, and is l ...

(

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, concrete 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 1956 using plans drawn up by the architect

Arnstein Arneberg Arnstein Rynning Arneberg (6 July 1882 – 9 June 1961) was a Norwegian architect. He was active professionally for 50 years and is often considered the leading architect in Norway of his time. Personal life Arnstein Rynning Arneberg was ...

. The church seats about 600 people.

History

In 1895, plans were made to build a chapel in the village of Dale. Peter and Jens Jebsen wrote a letter to the municipal council that ''Dale Fabrikker'', a local industrial business, would pay for the upkeep of the new chapel. Johannes Haldorsen was hired to build the chapel. On 16 July 1896,

King Oscar II Oscar II (Oscar Fredrik; 21 January 1829 – 8 December 1907) was King of Sweden from 1872 until his death in 1907 and King of Norway from 1872 to 1905. Oscar was the son of King Oscar I and Queen Josephine. He inherited the Swedish and Norweg ...

visited Dale and saw the chapel as it was being built. The new chapel 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 15 November 1896 by the Bishop Waldemar Hvoslef. The chapel was built in a neo-Gothic style and had 380 seats, including the second floor seating gallery. In 1916, electric lights were installed in the building. By the 1930s, it was noted that the chapel was too small for the village. Planning for a new, larger church began in the 1930s.

won the architectural competition to design the new church. Work on this stopped for many years due to World War II, but in 1947, Arneberg delivered his drawings for the new church. It wasn't until September 1953, that a building permit was granted. The old chapel was torn down and its materials were sold. The groundbreaking ceremony for the new church was held in 1954 and it was completed in 1956. The new church was

d on 16 December 1956.

Media gallery

2016-09-24 16.28.00-dalekirke.jpg 2016-09-24 16.28.55-dalekirke.jpg 2016-09-24 16.29.41-dalekirke.jpg

References

{{use dmy dates, date=May 2020 Vaksdal Churches in Vestland Long churches in Norway Concrete churches in Norway 20th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1956 1896 establishments in Norway

History

Media gallery

See also

References