Hyllestad Church ( no, Hyllestad 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

Hyllestad Municipality Hyllestad is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in the Counties of Norway, county of Vestland, Norway. It is located in the Districts of Norway, traditional district of Sogn. The administrative center is the Hyllestad (village), vi ...

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 the ...

. It is located in the village of Hyllestad. It is one of the three churches for the Hyllestad

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

Sunnfjord prosti Sunnfjord ( en, the southern fjord - in contrast to Nordfjord) is a traditional district in Western Norway located in Vestland county. It includes the municipalities of Askvoll, Fjaler, the southernmost parts of Kinn, Sunnfjord, and the southern ...

( deanery) in the Diocese of Bjørgvin. The white, wooden church was built in a long church design in 1880 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 ...

Johannes Henrik Nissen Johannes Henrik Nissen ( 21 April 1848 – 4 June 1915) was a Norwegian architect. Personal life He was born in Oslo, Christiania as a son of school manager Hartvig Nissen (1815–1874) and Karen Magdalena Aas (1820–1900). He was a great-gran ...

. The church seats about 300 people.

History

The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1322, but the church was not new that year. Legend has it that Olav Kyrre may have built a church here in the 11th century, but there is no evidence to prove this. The first known church building in Hyllestad was likely 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 was located at the Hyllestad farm, about northeast of the present location at the foot of the mountain ("the church mountain"). The exact date of the original construction is not known, but the baptismal font in the church is dated from the 12th century, so it is quite possible the church was built at that time. In 1681, the old building was torn down and replaced by 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 woode ...

long church. The new church had a

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 ...

that measured and 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 sp ...

that measured . The church had a tower about the

church porch A church porch is a room-like structure at a church's main entrance. A porch protects from the weather to some extent. Some porches have an outer door, others a simple gate, and in some cases the outer opening is not closed in any way. The porch ...

. In 1720, the church received a new tower spire. By the mid- to late-1800s, the space at the old church site and cemetery was too small and could not be expanded. In 1880, a new church site was chosen at Myklebust, a little to the south of the old church site (where the present village of Hyllestad is located). The old church was torn down and the cemetery and stone fence that encircled the yard were left in place, but it was no longer used. The new Hyllestad Church is a wooden, basilica style church. It was designed by

Henrik Nissen Johannes Henrik Nissen ( 21 April 1848 – 4 June 1915) was a Norwegian architect. Personal life He was born in Christiania as a son of school manager Hartvig Nissen (1815–1874) and Karen Magdalena Aas (1820–1900). He was a great-grandson ...

and the lead builder was John Alver. The building was consecrated on 23 November 1880. Originally, the church was painted yellow on the exterior, but more recently it has been painted white.

References

{{use dmy dates, date=September 2021 Hyllestad Churches in Vestland Long churches in Norway Wooden churches in Norway 19th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1880 12th-century establishments in Norway

History

See also

References