Romfo Church ( no, Romfo 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 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 ...

Sunndal Municipality is a municipality in the Nordmøre region located in the northeast part of Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Sunndalsøra. Other villages include Gjøra, Grøa, Hoelsand, Jordalsgre ...

Møre og Romsdal Møre og Romsdal (; en, Møre and Romsdal) is a county in the northernmost part of Western Norway. It borders the counties of Trøndelag, Innlandet, and Vestland. The county administration is located in the town of Molde, while Ålesund is 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 t ...

. It is located in the village of

Romfo Romfo is a village in Sunndal Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The village is located along the river Driva in the Sunndalen valley. The Norwegian National Road 70 runs through the village which is most known as the site of Rom ...

in the inner part of the Sunndalen valley, along the river

Driva The Driva river runs through Trøndelag and Møre og Romsdal counties in Norway. The headwaters lie in the Dovrefjell mountains in the south, from where it flows northward, downward through the Drivdalen valley in the municipality of Oppdal. When ...

. It is the main church for the Romfo

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 ...

which is part of the Indre Nordmøre 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 Møre The Diocese of Møre ( no, Møre bispedømme) is a diocese in the Church of Norway which geographically consists of Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. Its bishop is seated at the Molde Cathedral which is located in the county administrative center ...

. The white, wooden church was built in an

octagonal In geometry, an octagon (from the Greek ὀκτάγωνον ''oktágōnon'', "eight angles") is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, whi ...

style in 1821 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 ...

Ole Pedersen Tøfte. The church seats about 267 people.

History

The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to 1589, but it was not new that year. The first church here was located along the river

about to the east of the present church site, in a place called ''Musgjerd''. The first church was described as a small, rectangular

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 a ...

with no tower and it may have been built in the 14th century. The church sat at the base of steep mountains along the

river valley and at times over the centuries, it had been damaged in

avalanche An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a slope, such as a hill or mountain. Avalanches can be set off spontaneously, by such factors as increased precipitation or snowpack weakening, or by external means such as humans, animals, and earth ...

s. In the 1680s, the building was renovated and repaired because it was in such poor condition. The repairs temporarily worked to keep the building in use, but by the early 1700s, the church was again said to be quite dilapidated. In 1707, the church site was torn down and the church site was moved about further downstream to the northwest to a place called Romfo. The new site was on a large flat area in the centre of the river valley which had a much smaller chance of being damaged by an avalanch. The new church at Romfo was completed in 1708. It was 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 wooden ...

long church with a tower, and some materials from the old Musgjerd church were reused in the construction of the church. In the early 1800s, the church was damaged by flooding on the nearby river Driva, so it was decided to move the church a little further away from the river on some higher ground. In 1820, the old church was torn down and work on a new church began. The new building was constructed from 1820-1821 and it was

consecrated Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...

on 14 August 1821 by the Bishop

Peder Olivarius Bugge Peder Olivarius Bugge (2 December 1764 – 6 December 1849) was a Norwegian priest and politician. He was the bishop of the Diocese of Nidaros from 1804 until 1842. Biography Peder Olivarius Bugge was born at Holt in Nedenes county, Norway. ...

. The new church had an octagonal design with a

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 ...

on the west end. Later, a

sacristy A sacristy, also known as a vestry or preparation room, is a room in Christian churches for the keeping of vestments (such as the alb and chasuble) and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records. The sacristy is usually located ...

on the east end of the building. In 1890, a number of changes were made to the interior, and the church was painted inside and out. In 1937-1940, the church was restored back to its original appearance.

Media gallery

Romfo kirke - an10071203221001.jpg, Painting of the old church building (1708-1820) Romfo kirke, Møre og Romsdal - Riksantikvaren-T343 01 0006.jpg, Photo of the present church (1934) Romfo kirke 18.08.2013 cropped.JPG, Photo of the present church (2013)

References

{{use dmy dates, date=July 2021 Sunndal Churches in Møre og Romsdal Wooden churches in Norway Octagonal churches in Norway 19th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1821 14th-century establishments in Norway

History

Media gallery

See also

References