Sagene Church is located in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

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 ...

. The church is one of the most rugged and prominent in Oslo. The church was built in

gothic revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style and it was consecrated in 1891. It was designed by

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 ...

Christian Fürst Christian Fürst (15 April 1860 - 8 January 1910) was a Norwegian architect. Personal life Christian Fürst was a Norwegian architect, born in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway on April 15, 1860, and died, on the 8th of January in 1910. He lived i ...

neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style. There are 600 seats. SageneKirke-4

Fountain and landscaping around the church were conducted from 1891 to 1895, and upgraded from 1923. The

altarpiece An altarpiece is an artwork such as a painting, sculpture or relief representing a religious subject made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting o ...

was executed by the painter Christen Brun (1828-1905) and shows the removal of Jesus from the cross. At the choir stairs a large

baptismal Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christians, Christian sacrament of initiation and Adoption ...

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...

with a

dove Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...

, the symbol of the

Holy Ghost For the majority of Christian denominations, the Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost, is believed to be the third person of the Trinity, a Triune God manifested as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, each entity itself being God.Grud ...

, created by Carsten Lien in 1919, restored in 1959. The

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

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 ...

, made of

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...

and is from 1890. The church has a number of

stained-glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

windows. a large rose window above the main entrance, four windows in the middle of 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 ...

with

Old Old or OLD may refer to: Places *Old, Baranya, Hungary *Old, Northamptonshire, England *Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Mai ...

and

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

motifs. Closest to the church ship are six stained-glass windows, each displaying two

apostle An apostle (), in its literal sense, is an emissary, from Ancient Greek ἀπόστολος (''apóstolos''), literally "one who is sent off", from the verb ἀποστέλλειν (''apostéllein''), "to send off". The purpose of such sending ...

s with stylized ornaments in between. The stained glass windows are made by the

glass master In optical disc manufacturing, replication is the process of producing discs via methods that do not involve "burning" blank CD, DVD or other discs; the latter is known as duplication. The replication of optical discs involves: # the creation of ...

G. A. Larsen, designed by Sigurd Nilsen.Sagene kirke

Oslo byleksikon ''Oslo byleksikon'' ( en, Oslo City Encyclopaedia) is an encyclopaedia on Oslo, Norway's capital city. It has been published in five editions since 1938. The third, fourth and the fifth editions were published in cooperation between the heritage ...

(in Norwegian) The church is known for its

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s. The main church organ with 35 voices is from 1891 and is the only remaining of Hollenbach organs in Norway. Another church organ was placed at the choir in 2015. The church has three

church bell A church bell in Christian architecture is a bell which is rung in a church for a variety of religious purposes, and can be heard outside the building. Traditionally they are used to call worshippers to the church for a communal service, and t ...

s, cast by the German firm of C. Albert Bierling,

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

in 1891. Sagene Church is listed by the

Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage The Directorate for Cultural Heritage ( no, Riksantikvaren or ''Direktoratet for kulturminneforvaltning'') is a government agency responsible for the management of cultural heritage in Norway. Subordinate to the Norwegian Ministry of the Environm ...

.Sagene kirke / kirkested
Kulturminnesøk -Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage (in Norwegian)

In popular culture

The first half of the "O helga natt" scene from episode 9 of the 3rd season of the critically acclaimed Norwegian TV show Skam takes place in the church interior. The character of Isak (portrayed by

Tarjei Sandvik Moe Tarjei Sandvik Moe (born 24 May 1999) is a Norwegian actor. He rose to fame with his portrayal of Isak Valtersen, the main character in the third season of Norwegian teen drama series ''Skam (TV series), Skam''. His acting, and the third season ...

) famously storms out of a Christmas concert performed (among others) by

Nils Bech Nils Bech (born April 8, 1981, in Hønefoss) is a Norwegian singer, signed to James Murphy's DFA Records. Bech became famous for performing a classic Christmas anthem O Holy Night for the Norwegian TV series Skam. His version of O Holy Night rece ...

to go meet his boyfriend Even (portrayed by

Henrik Holm Henrik is a male given name of Germanic origin, primarily used in Scandinavia, Estonia, Hungary and Slovenia. In Poland, the name is spelt Henryk but pronounced similarly. Equivalents in other languages are Henry (English), Heiki (Estonian), Heikk ...

References

External links

Official parish website

Virtual Interior Sagene Church, 360° Panorama
Lutheran churches in Oslo Churches completed in 1891 1891 establishments in Norway 19th-century Church of Norway church buildings Gothic Revival church buildings in Norway {{Oslo-church-stub