Kongsberg Church ( no, Kongsberg kirke, nn, Kongsberg kyrkje) is a building and congregation 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 ...

located at

Kongsberg Kongsberg () is a historical mining town and municipality in Buskerud, Viken county, Norway. The city is located on the river Numedalslågen at the entrance to the valley of Numedal. Kongsberg has been a centre of silver mining, arms production ...

Viken Viken may refer to: *Viken, Scandinavia, a historical region *Viken (county), a Norwegian county established in 2020 *Viken, Sweden, a bimunicipal locality in Skåne County, Sweden *Viken (lake), a lake in Sweden, part of the part of the Göta cana ...

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

, Norway. Kongsberg Church, a large baroque church, was designed by Joachim Andreas Stukenbrock and the construction period lasted from

1740 Events January–March * January 8 – All 237 crewmen on the Dutch East India Company ship ''Rooswijk'' are drowned, when the vessel strikes the shoals of Goodwin Sands, off of the coast of England, as it is beginning its secon ...

1761 Events January–March * January 14 – Third Battle of Panipat: Ahmad Shah Durrani and his coalition decisively defeat the Maratha Confederacy, and restore the Mughal Empire to Shah Alam II. * January 16 – Siege of Pondi ...

. It has a simple exterior with a richly decorated

rococo Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...

interior. Kongsberg Church was constructed of brick and designed with 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 described ...

floor plan. The design of the church was inspired by Garnisons Church in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

. Virtually all fixtures in the church are of wood, but pillars and surfaces have been marbled. The whole church has a cool blue color as a result. On either side of the altar and pulpit are the pillars that bear the organ gallery above. The Baroque organ is from 1765 and made by organ builder

Gottfried Heinrich Gloger Gottfried Heinrich Gloger (1710, Hannover – April 1779, Verdal) was a German organbuilder and organist. Biography Gloger was born as the third son of the organbuilder Johann Heinrich Gloger. His elder brothers were Johann Wilhelm Gloger (1702 ...

. In the 1850s it was restored by Paul Brantzeg and in 1932 by

Josef Hilmar Jørgensen Josef Hilmar Jørgensen (March 28, 1892 – November 2, 1961) was a Norwegian organ builder. Jørgensen was the owner of the J. H. Jørgensen organ company. The company was originally called Olsen & Jørgensen from 1892 to 1925Frisk, Anna, Sver ...

. In 1928,

Tinius Olsen Tinius Olsen (December 7, 1845 – October 20, 1932) was a Norwegian-born American engineer and inventor. He was the founder of thTinius Olsen Material Testing Machine Company a maker of material testing machines. He was awarded the Elliott Cre ...

gave a major donation to the restoration of the organ which had suffered water damage in the late 1880s. The baptismal font was carved out of marble extracted from

Holmestrand is a town and municipality in Vestfold in Vestfold og Telemark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Holmestrand. The town was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). ...

Vestfold Vestfold is a traditional region, a former county and a current electoral district in Eastern Norway. In 2020 the county became part of the much larger county of Vestfold og Telemark. Located on the western shore of the Oslofjord, it bordered th ...

. The chandeliers were produced at Nøstetangen glassverk in

Hokksund Hokksund is a town in the municipality of Øvre Eiker in the county of Viken, Norway. History Hokksund is the administrative centre, and largest town in Øvre Eiker, with a population of around 8,000. Hokksund is located 18 km west of Dramm ...

during the second half of the 1700s. The sanctuary includes ceiling decorations by

Eric Gustav Tunmarck Eric Gustaf Tunmarck (1 May 1729 – 1789) was a Swedish-Norwegian painter. Biography He was born in Gothenburg, Sweden. His apprenticeship was with Jacob von Schönfeldt (1709–1766) in Gothenburg. He arrived in Kongsberg during 1760, brin ...

. Among the driving forces behind the decoration and interior of the church was mining engineer

Michael Heltzen Michael Heltzen (22 June 1712 – 10 September 1770) was a Norwegian mining engineer. He was born in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway. He was the son of Helle Michelsen (1674-1725) and Sophie Cathrine Paulsdatter Vogt (d. 1723). He started s ...

Kongsberg Church Interior

File:Gloger organ Kongsberg.jpg, Gloger organ File:Kongsberg kirke - Autel.JPG, Altar File:Kongsberg kirke - Orgue.JPG, Gloger organ File:Kongsberg kirke - Plafond.JPG, Ceiling File:Kongsberg kirke - Vue générale.JPG, Sanctuary File:Kongsberg kirke - Alter og prekestol.JPG, Altar

References

External links

Kongsberg kirke website
Churches in Viken Churches completed in 1761 1761 in Norway Cruciform churches in Norway 18th-century Church of Norway church buildings {{Viken-church-stub