Saint Jetmund Church ( no, Sankt Jetmund kyrkje) is a former

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 ...

in the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

Vanylven Vanylven is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the Sunnmøre region. The administrative centre is the village of Fiskåbygd. Other villages in the municipality include Åheim, Åram, Rovdane, Eidså, Slagnes, ...

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

Åheim Åheim is a village in Vanylven Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The village is located along the shore of the inner part of the Vanylvsfjorden. The village is one of the larger urban areas in the municipality, mostly due to the ...

, on the eastern shore of the

Vanylvsfjorden Vanylvsfjorden is a fjord in western Norway, on the border of Vestland and Møre og Romsdal counties. The long fjord runs between the mainland of Vanylven Municipality and the Stad peninsula of Stad Municipality, with the islands of Sande Muni ...

. It is now a museum and historic site, but the church was once the main church for the Vanylven

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 now part of the Søre Sunnmøre 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 marble and stone church was rebuilt 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 ...

design between 1931 and 1957 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 ...

Johan Lindstrøm and the historian Cato Engen. The marble and stone church was originally built in 1150 and torn down in 1864 when it was replaced by the newly built

Vanylven Church Vanylven Church ( no, Vanylven kyrkje) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in the municipality of Vanylven in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located in the village of Slagnes, on the shore of the Vanylvsfjorden. It is the church f ...

in nearby

Slagnes Slagnes is a village in Vanylven Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The village is located along the Vanylvsfjorden, about north of the village of Åheim. Slagnes is a small peninsula that sits about across the fjord from the m ...

. The church was rebuilt as a museum in 1957.

History

The earliest existing historical records of the old stone church date back to 1403, but the church wasn't new at that time. The first church in Vanylven was a stone

that was likely built around the year 1150. It was called ''Vanylven Church'' originally. The medieval church had a rectangular

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

that measured and narrower, square

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

that measured about . During the 1600s or early 1700s, the

was enlarged with 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 ...

addition on the west end of the building. 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 th ...

which wrote the

Constitution of Norway nb, Kongeriket Norges Grunnlov nn, Kongeriket Noregs Grunnlov , jurisdiction =Kingdom of Norway , date_created =10 April - 16 May 1814 , date_ratified =16 May 1814 , system =Constitutional monarchy , b ...

. 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 E ...

later that year. In 1844, the parish considered expanding the church since it was too small for the population, but this was not carried out. A law passed in 1851 required the church be able to seat at least 30% of the people living in the parish, so it had to be enlarged or replaced. Years of debate ensued and eventually it was decided that a new church would be built. Since there was not much room on the old site to build a larger church and the fact that most of the parish was living in

Fiskåbygd Fiskåbygd or Fiskå is a coastal village that is also the administrative centre of Vanylven Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The village is located about southwest of the city of Ålesund, about east of the village of Mykleb ...

, it was also decided to move the church site about to the north. In 1863, the old church was torn down to about above the ground level. The stone materials that were torn down were sold and reused in other area buildings. Besides the foundation remaining, the

portal Portal often refers to: * Portal (architecture), an opening in a wall of a building, gate or fortification, or the extremities (ends) of a tunnel Portal may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Gaming * ''Portal'' (series), two video games ...

and archway were also left in place. The same year, the new

in the nearby village of Slagnes was opened. The medieval church site sat vacant from 1864 to 1931 when it was decided to reconstruct the old church for historical purposes. In 1931, the overgrown church site was cleared after the site was purchased by Lars Lid. In 1937, the

Johan Lindstrøm and the historian Cato Engen, in conjunction with 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 ...

, led the construction of a replica of the historic church using the old plans for the building and using the old foundations that were never removed. Work on the project was paused for a number of years during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, but resumed in 1950. In 1957, the church was completed 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 ...

by the bishop on 11 August 1957. Since its reconstruction, it has been known as the ''St. Jetmund Church'' rather than its historical name since there is a new Vanylven Church now. Many of the original stones were reclaimed and reused in the new church. The new church is now a museum.

Dedication

The church was named after

St. Edmund Edmund the Martyr (also known as St Edmund or Edmund of East Anglia, died 20 November 869) was king of Kingdom of East Anglia, East Anglia from about 855 until his death. Few historical facts about Edmund are known, as the kingdom of East An ...

( no, Sankt Jetmund), an English saint. He was a medieval King of England who had been in Åheim (and according to legend, he founded the church). He was killed by

Vikings Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

and later made a saint.

Media gallery

Sankt Jetmund kirke 2014 2.jpg Sankt Jetmund kirke 2014 3.jpg Sankt Jetmund kirke 2014.jpg FV5 St Jetmund kirke.jpg Åheim kirke - an10071205081010.jpg

References

{{use dmy dates, date=August 2021 Vanylven Churches in Møre og Romsdal Stone churches in Norway Long churches in Norway 20th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1957 12th-century establishments in Norway Norwegian election church

History

Dedication

Media gallery

See also

References