Election Church on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
An election church ( no, valgkirke) is a term used for approximately 300 churches in 
The parish priest was the chief official in the local community, and it was usually the parish priest that administered the elections. The elections were essentially indirect elections, in which the people of each parish chose an "elector". A few days later, all the electors in the county met together at a central church in the county. At that meeting, the electors chose the representatives to send to Eidsvoll. In some small towns with only one congregation, the selection took place through direct voting. The first elections took place on a general day of prayer declared on Friday, February 25, 1814.
Many of these churches have been lost since 1814. Some have burned down, but most of the churches that are gone were torn down and replaced by new churches. About 190 election churches are still standing and are preserved historical sites. On the 200th anniversary of the vote in 2014, the National Archives and the Directorate for Cultural Heritage collaborated to label the churches with
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 ...
that were used as polling stations during the elections to the 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 th ...
at Eidsvoll in 1814. This was Norway's first national elections and this assembly is the group that wrote the Constitution of Norway
nb, Kongeriket Norges Grunnlov
nn, Kongeriket Noregs Grunnlov
, jurisdiction =Kingdom of Norway
, date_created =10 April - 16 May 1814
, date_ratified =16 May 1814
, system =Constitutional monarchy
, b ...
. The churches were used because they were the natural center of public life for most places in the country, and because the 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 ...
( no, prestegjeld) was the basic unit of the electoral system.
The parish priest was the chief official in the local community, and it was usually the parish priest that administered the elections. The elections were essentially indirect elections, in which the people of each parish chose an "elector". A few days later, all the electors in the county met together at a central church in the county. At that meeting, the electors chose the representatives to send to Eidsvoll. In some small towns with only one congregation, the selection took place through direct voting. The first elections took place on a general day of prayer declared on Friday, February 25, 1814.
Many of these churches have been lost since 1814. Some have burned down, but most of the churches that are gone were torn down and replaced by new churches. About 190 election churches are still standing and are preserved historical sites. On the 200th anniversary of the vote in 2014, the National Archives and the Directorate for Cultural Heritage collaborated to label the churches with blue plaque
A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term i ...
s and to reprint facsimiles of the documents stating the addresses and authority of these churches.
References
{{use dmy dates, date=February 2021 Political history of Norway 1814 in Norway