Granvin Church ( no, Granvin 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 ...

Voss Municipality Voss () is a municipality and a traditional district in Vestland county, Norway. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Vossevangen. Other villages include Bolstadøyri, Borstrondi, Evanger, Kvitheim, Mjølfjell, Opphe ...

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 on the eastern shore of the

Granvinsvatnet Granvinsvatnet is a lake in the Granvin area of Voss Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The lake sits just north of the village of Eide. The Norwegian National Road 13 exits the Tunsberg Tunnel just northwest of the lake and then runs a ...

in the small farm area called "Granvin". This place located a few kilometers north of the village of Granvin. It is the church for the Granvin

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, 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 1726 using plans drawn up by an unknown

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 ...

. The church seats about 350 people.

History

The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1306, but it 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 a ...

that was likely built during the 13th century. There were covered corridors surrounding the whole stave church. In 1690–1692, 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 ...

was extended to the west and a new tower was constructed on the west end of the newly enlarged nave. The new construction was a

timber-framed Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

building attached to the medieval stave construction. Then in 1703, 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 ...

was also extended to the east by . In 1726, the church was sold to two private landowners Kristoffer Aamundsen Ødven and Sivert Gundersen. At the time of the sale, the building was described as "very rundown". Shortly thereafter, the church was torn down and replaced by a new

building. The new church was about 1/3rd larger in both width and length, measuring . In 1853–1855, the church was renovated to the layout of the present-day church. The church was sold to the parish in 1857. In 1911, the church was renovated again.

Media gallery

Granvin Church 2.jpg Granvin kyrkje 01.JPG 7008. P. Z. - Hardanger Wedding Party (16891313227) (cropped).jpg Granvin kirke - no-nb digifoto 20151116 00108 NB MIT FNR 12949.jpg SFFf-1992078.0024 (3613674132).jpg Granvin kyrkje Wilse.jpeg Granvin kirke - no-nb digifoto 20151116 00159 NB MIT FNR 12957 (cropped).jpg

References

{{use dmy dates, date=May 2020 Voss Churches in Vestland Long churches in Norway Wooden churches in Norway 18th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1726 13th-century establishments in Norway

History

Media gallery

See also

References