Jostedal Church ( no, Jostedal 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

Luster Municipality Luster is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located at the end of the Sognefjorden in the traditional district of Sogn. The administrative centre is the village of Gaupne. Other villages in Luster include Fortun, Hafslo, Indre ...

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

Jostedal Jostedal is a former municipality in the old Sogn og Fjordane county in Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1963. It was located in the Jostedalen valley in the northern part of the present-day municipality of ...

. It is the church for the Jostedal

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

Sogn prosti Sogn is a traditional district in Western Norway ''(Vestlandet)''. It is located in the county of Vestland, surrounding the Sognefjord, the largest/longest fjord in Norway. The district of Sogn consists of the municipalities of Aurland, Balestra ...

( deanery) in the Diocese of Bjørgvin. The white, wooden church was built in a long church design around 1660 by builder Hans Ottesen Ravn 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 120 people.

History

The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1322, but the church was not new 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 ar ...

that was likely built in the 13th century. The whole Jostedalen area became virtually uninhabited after the Black Death in Norway, so the wooden church must have sat vacant for some time. Tradition states that the church was unused from the mid-1300s until the mid-1500s and throughout that time it was not maintained. Eventually more people moved back to the valley and in 1533, the old church was torn down and replaced with a new stave church. That stave church fell into disrepair rather quickly and it was torn down in 1660. After the old church was demolished, a small,

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 was built on the same site. Some of the materials from the previous building were reused in the new building. The new building was long and tall and it was built by Hans Ottesen Ravn who was the son of the priest. In 1680, there was a snow avalanche that hit the building and the tower was damaged. During the 1700s, the church was successively expanded and rebuilt. The area that once was 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 ...

was incorporated into 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 ...

and a new choir was added to the east of the existing building. On the west end of the church, a new

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 ...

was built at that time as well. In 1814, this church served as an

election church An election church ( no, valgkirke) is a term used for approximately 300 churches in Norway that were used as polling stations during the elections to the Norwegian Constituent Assembly at Eidsvoll in 1814. This was Norway's first national election ...

( no, valgkirke). Together with more than 300 other parish churches across Norway, it was a polling station for elections to the 1814

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 t ...

which wrote the Constitution of Norway. This was Norway's first national elections. Each

church 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 ...

was a constituency that elected people called "electors" who later met together in each county to elect the representatives for the assembly that was to meet in

Eidsvoll Eidsvoll (; sometimes written as ''Eidsvold'') is a municipality in Akershus in Viken county, Norway. It is part of the Romerike traditional region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Sundet. General information ...

later that year. In 1907–1910, the church was extensively renovated by architect Johannes Kløften. During this renovation, the

was rebuilt and the

was enlarged. In 1960, the old floor was removed and a new floor was laid. In the 1990s, the ceiling of the

was opened up and insulation was added.

Media gallery

FV604P Jostedal kirke.jpg Jostedal kyrkje Wilse.jpeg Jostedal church and refectory, ca. 1898. (12609012913).jpg Jostedal church and rectory, ca. 1898. (12609037453).jpg Interior Jostedal church, ca. 1898. (12609332724).jpg

References

{{use dmy dates, date=October 2021 Luster, Norway Churches in Vestland Long churches in Norway Wooden churches in Norway 19th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1660 13th-century establishments in Norway Norwegian election church

History

Media gallery

See also

References