Rødøy Church ( no, Rødøy kirke) 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 Rødøy Municipality in Nordland 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 on the island of

Rødøya Rødøya is an island in the municipality of Rødøy in Nordland county, Norway. The island is located just west of the mouth of the Tjongsfjorden, north of the island of Gjerdøya, and west of the mainland. There are ferry connections fro ...

. It is one of the churches in the Rødøy

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 Nord-Helgeland prosti ( deanery) in the

Diocese of Sør-Hålogaland Sør-Hålogaland is a diocese in the Church of Norway. The Diocese covers the Lutheran Church of Norway churches located within Nordland county in Norway. The diocese is headquartered in the town of Bodø at Bodø Cathedral, the seat of the ...

. 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, w ...

style in 1885 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 ...

Andreas Grenstad. The church seats about 700 people.

History

The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1432, but the church was not built that year. The first church here was located about north of the present site of the church (an alternate site where there may be evidence of this first church is about north of the present church site). The first church was likely a

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 built in the 14th century. During the 17th century, records show that the church was in need of replacing one of the large stave posts. In 1725, the old medieval building was torn down and a new church was built on the same site. The new building was a small wooden church with a low roof line and no tower. It had 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 describe ...

design and later a tower was constructed on the roof. 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 1885, a new church was constructed at a site about south of the old church on the present church site. This new church was built in an

design. After construction was complete, the old church was torn down. The church had a fire in 2009 after a

lightning Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous release of an avera ...

strike.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodoy Church Rødøy Churches in Nordland Octagonal churches in Norway Wooden churches in Norway 19th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1885 14th-century establishments in Norway Norwegian election church

History

See also

References