Melbu Church ( no, Melbu kirke) is a parish church 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 ...

Hadsel Municipality Hadsel ( sme, Válafierda) is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Vesterålen. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Stokmarknes. Other villages in Hadsel include Fiskebøl, ...

Nordland Nordland (; smj, Nordlánnda, sma, Nordlaante, sme, Nordlánda, en, Northland) is a county in Norway in the Northern Norway region, the least populous of all 11 counties, bordering Troms og Finnmark in the north, Trøndelag in the south, N ...

county, Norway. It is located in the village of Melbu on the island of

Hadseløya Hadseløya or Hadseløy is an island in Hadsel Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is located in the Vesterålen region on the north side of the Hadselfjorden. The town of Stokmarknes is situated on the northern shore of the island and t ...

. It is one of the churches for the Melbu parish which is part of the Vesterålen prosti (

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 Sør-Hålogaland. 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 ...

style in 1938 using plans drawn up by the architect

Harald Sund Harald Thorbjørn Sund (February 16, 1876 – April 9, 1940) was a Norwegian architect, artist and illustrator. Architectural career Sund was born at Sund in the parish of Gildeskål in Nordland, Norway. Sund studied architectural engineering ...

. The church seats about 250 people.

History

There was a medieval church in Melbu, but the old stave church became run down and in poor condition, so there were no more

worship service A church service (or a service of worship) is a formalized period of Christian communal worship Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity. It may involve one or more of activities such as veneration, adorat ...

s held after 1694. The church remained standing until at least 1750, but it was in "fragile" condition by then. The exact location of the old church is unknown. In 1919, Mrs. Maren Fredriksen from the Melbu farm sought to have a church located in the Melbu area to serve the people in that area. She donated land south of the farm in 1932 for the church and a surrounding graveyard with room for about 160 graves. The church was completed in 1938.

Media gallery

Melbu kyrkje.jpg Melbu kyrkje tårn.jpg Melbu kyrkje alter.jpg Melbu kyrkje preikestol.jpg Melbu kirke innvendig.jpg Melbu kyrkje inni.jpg

References

{{use dmy dates, date=March 2021 Hadsel Churches in Nordland Wooden churches in Norway 20th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1938 1938 establishments in Norway Long churches in Norway

History

Media gallery

See also

References