Heidal Church ( no, Heidal 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 in

Sel Municipality Sel is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Otta. The municipality also includes several notable villages including ...

Innlandet Innlandet is a county in Norway. It was created on 1 January 2020 with the merger of the old counties of Oppland and Hedmark (the municipalities of Jevnaker and Lunner were transferred to the neighboring county of Viken on the same date). The ...

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 the ...

. It is located in the village of Bjølstad, in

Heidal Heidal or Heidalen is a valley in Sel Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. The U-shaped valley follows the river Sjoa which begins in the nearby Jotunheimen mountains eastward until it joins the Gudbrandsdalslågen river in the main va ...

, a side valley of the main

Gudbrandsdalen Gudbrandsdalen (; en, Gudbrand Valley) is a valley and traditional district in the Norwegian county of Innlandet (formerly Oppland). The valley is oriented in a north-westerly direction from Lillehammer and the lake of Mjøsa, extending towa ...

valley. It is the church for the Heidal

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 o ...

which is part of the

Nord-Gudbrandsdal prosti The list of churches in Hamar is a list of the Church of Norway churches in the Diocese of Hamar which includes all of Innlandet county (plus two municipalities in Viken (county), Viken county) in Norway. The list is divided into several sections ...

( deanery) in the Diocese of Hamar. The brown, wooden church was built in a

cruciform Cruciform is a term for physical manifestations resembling a common cross or Christian cross. The label can be extended to architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly describe ...

design in 1941 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 ...

Bredo Berntsen. The church seats about 292 people. The church, cemetery, and Bjølstad Chapel are encircled by a sturdy double-layered timber-framed wall that is approximately tall. The wall has a slate roof on top.

History

The history of this church is rather complicated with several church sites and various buildings that have served the congregation over the centuries. The first church in Heidal 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 ar ...

that is said to have been built during the first half of the 11th century. The church was originally located at ''Nørdre Prestgard'' in Bjølstad, about to the northwest of the present church site. The oldest sources connect it with the

Christianization of Norway The Christianization of Scandinavia, as well as other Nordic countries and the Baltic countries, took place between the 8th and the 12th centuries. The realms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden established their own Archdioceses, responsible directly ...

. The discovery of gravestones and remains there also indicates that there was a cemetery at the site of the old church. Probably around 1531 (definitely during the 1500s), the old stave church was moved to the

Bjølstad Farm The Bjølstad Farm ( no, Bjølstad gård) is a farm in Heidal in the municipality of Sel in Innlandet county, Norway. The farm was mentioned in written sources as early as 1270. Eirik Bjørnsson, who gradually purchased the farm in the 1430s, was ...

, about to the west of the old church site. Tradition says that the old church was moved because of gross desecration of the churchyard. There is no evidence as to what this was, but it caused the parish to move the church to a neighboring farm. Eventually the church became too small, and a new

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 woode ...

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 built to replace the old stave church nave. The new nave measured approximately . Apparently 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 sp ...

from the stave church was retained. By 1675, the old choir was rotting and in need of replacement, so the choir was replaced with a new timber-framed choir and sacristy on the same site. Some of the materials from the old church were reused in this remodeling project. Some of the reused beams and doorposts in the church were the most visible remnants from the earliest church, which date back to the 1000s. The doorposts are decorated with some of Norway's oldest carvings. By the 1700s, the church had started to fall into disrepair and was not in great condition. In 1723, the church was sold at the

Norwegian church auction The Norwegian church sale ( no, kirkesalget) was a comprehensive and systematic sale of most of the church properties in Norway during the 1720s. The purpose of this sale was the intention of improving the poor public finances in the Kingdom of Denm ...

when the King sold off all the churches to help pay debts from the

Great Northern War The Great Northern War (1700–1721) was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swed ...

. The new church owner paid 20

riksdaler The svenska riksdaler () was the name of a Swedish coin first minted in 1604. Between 1777 and 1873, it was the currency of Sweden. The daler, like the dollar,''National Geographic''. June 2002. p. 1. ''Ask Us''. was named after the German Thaler. ...

for the church building and 8 0 riksdaler for the land. In 1754, a new church was built about to the east of the old church. It was consecrated on 11 March 1754. It was a

building.

Jakob Klukstad Jakob Bersveinson Klukstad (1705–1773) was a Norwegian wood carver and painter. Klukstad had great significance for future wood carvers in the Gudbrand Valley. Biography Klukstad was born in Lom, Norway, Lom. He spent most of his career on the ...

designed the new altarpiece, pulpit, and

crucifix A crucifix (from Latin ''cruci fixus'' meaning "(one) fixed to a cross") is a cross with an image of Jesus on it, as distinct from a bare cross. The representation of Jesus himself on the cross is referred to in English as the ''corpus'' (Lati ...

, but many other interior furnishings were moved from the old church to the new church. The new church was known as the Tabor Church or Heidal Church (the name ''Tabor'' refers to

Mount Tabor Mount Tabor ( he, הר תבור) (Har Tavor) is located in Lower Galilee, Israel, at the eastern end of the Jezreel Valley, west of the Sea of Galilee. In the Hebrew Bible (Joshua, Judges), Mount Tabor is the site of the Battle of Mount Tabo ...

from the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

). After the new church was taken into use, the old church at Bjølstad became redundant and was no longer used. On 26 July 1933, the old church burned down due to a lightning strike. Most of the interior art and furnishings were lost in the fire, except for some silver candlesticks and metal crucifixes. A new church was built on the same site from 1937 to 1941. The new church was designed to be as close a copy to the original as possible, except that it would be a little larger. Bredo Berntsen was hired to design the building and Knut Villa was hired as the lead builder. The new building is a timbered wooden cruciform church (like most of the churches in the Gudbrandsdalen valley. The church has three second floor seating galleries: the organ is located in the gallery over the entrance. The other two galleries are outfitted with benches. The new church was consecrated on 8 June 1941 (one of very few churches in Norway that was consecrated during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Interior art

The church is richly decorated, largely consisting of carved acanthus elements. The woodcarvings in the church were created by three local woodcarvers: Mattias Fjerdingren, Anders Johnsgard, and Paul Sørhaugen. Edvard Bakkom from

Vågå Vågå () is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Vågåmo. Other village areas in Vågå include Lalm and Besshe ...

created the sculptures. The main image on the altarpiece shows Christ crucified. To the side of the cross stand Jesus's mother Mary and the disciple John. This central image is flanked by Moses holding the Tables of the Law and Aaron clothed as a high priest. At the top of the altarpiece, Christ is depicted holding a victory banner. This banner in Heidal Church is painted with a white cross on a red background instead of a red cross on a white background, as is customary. This creates the impression that the resurrected Christ is holding a Danish banner. The pulpit is covered with carvings, as are the end pieces on all the

pews A pew () is a long bench (furniture), bench seat or enclosed box, used for seating Member (local church), members of a Church (congregation), congregation or choir in a Church (building), church, synagogue or sometimes a courtroom. Overview ...

. The ceiling painting under the church's tower shows the Four Evangelists: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The

Eye of Providence The Eye of Providence (or the All-Seeing Eye of God) is a symbol that depicts an eye, often enclosed in a triangle and surrounded by rays of light or glory, meant to represent divine providence, whereby the eye of God watches over humanity. ...

is painted above the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

. Two cherubs blowing horns are painted above the organ.

Bjølstad Chapel

The church was located at Bjølstad from the 1500s until it was closed in 1754 after the new Heidal Church was completed. After its closure, it was used as a barn for quite some time. In 1786, records show that it was still located on the farm, but that it had been moved and that it was decaying. The tower and sacristy were removed at some point as well. In 1820, the farm owner moved the somewhat dilapidated building to the embankment below the farm. In 1933, the building was completely dismantled and put into storage. The materials were gifted to the community with the plan that they could be used to reconstruct the old church as a museum. From 1956 to 1965, the materials from the old Bjølstad Church () were used to rebuild the old church about southeast of the current church, adjacent to the graveyard that encircled the church. In addition to the doorposts from the 1000s, it preserves other old elements: the pulpit, a crucifix, the tower, and the bell. Its altar, which was painted by Borgar Hauglid at the time that the church was reassembled in 1962, depicts the resurrected Christ with the banner of victory. The decoration of the church's interior is otherwise modest. The new building was named Bjølstad Chapel () and it is able to accommodate 120 people. It is used for scheduled worship services only a few times a year.

Media gallery

A haunting stave church in Norway.jpg, Exterior of the church. Heidal - KMB - 16001000218384.jpg, Exterior of the church. Grave markers in Heidal Church, Norway.jpg, Historic grave markers from Heidal Bjølstad chapel, Sel, Norway.jpg, The historic Bjølstad Chapel sits on the grounds of the church

References

External links