Saltdal Church ( no, Saltdal 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 ...

Saltdal Municipality Saltdal ( sme, Sálát) is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Salten. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Rognan. Other villages in Saltdal include Røkland and Løn ...

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

Rognan Rognan is a village and the administrative centre of the municipality of Saltdal in Nordland county, Norway. The village is located at the innermost part of Skjerstad Fjord, called Saltdal Fjord. It is located about north of the village of R ...

. It is one of the churches for the Saltdal parish which is part of the

Salten prosti Salten is a traditional district in Nordland county, Norway. It includes the municipalities of Meløy, Gildeskål, Bodø, Beiarn, Saltdal, Fauske, Sørfold, Steigen, and Hamarøy. Salten covers an area of about and has a population (2016) o ...

(

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 1864 using plans drawn up by the architect

Peter Høier Holtermann Peter Høier Holtermann (16 November 1820 – 24 August 1865) was a Norwegian architect. Biography He was born in Austrått, in Ørland municipality, Sør-Trøndelag County, Norway. He was a son of assessor Ove Bjelke Holtermann (1782–1857 ...

. The church seats about 380 people.

History

The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1612, but the church was likely founded in the late middle ages. The church was located at the Saltnes farm, about to the southeast of the present location of the church. The parish priest in 1612 was Morten Olsen and he served the Saltdal parish until his death in 1647. In 1656, the old church was torn down and a new church was built on the same site. On 8 June 1770, Saltdal became its own

prestegjeld A ''prestegjeld'' was a geographic and administrative area within the Church of Norway (''Den Norske Kirke'') roughly equivalent to a parish. This traditional designation was in use for centuries to divide the kingdom into ecclesiastical areas tha ...

. In 1774-1778 the church was thoroughly renovated and enlarged by converting it to a cruciform design (some sources say that it was completely torn down and rebuilt rather than simply renovated). In 1814, this church served as an election church ( 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 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 later that year. In 1864, a new church was constructed to replace the old one. A new church site was chosen on the west side of the river, located in a more central part of the main village of

. The new church had a tower in the west and a small

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 south side between the nave and chancel. The old church was disassembled and moved to Skånland where it was rebuilt as

Skånland Church Skånland Church ( no, Skånland kirke) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Tjeldsund Municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. It is located in the village of Evenskjer. It is the church for the Skånland parish which is part of ...

References

{{use dmy dates, date=March 2021 Saltdal Churches in Nordland Wooden churches in Norway 19th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1864 16th-century establishments in Norway Norwegian election church Long churches in Norway

History

See also

References