Stokken Church ( no, Stokken 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 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 ...

Arendal Municipality Arendal () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Agder counties of Norway, county in southeastern Norway. Arendal belongs to the Districts of Norway, region of Southern Norway, Sørlandet. The administrative centre of the munici ...

Agder Agder is a county (''fylke'') and traditional region in the southern part of Norway. The county was established on 1 January 2020, when the old Vest-Agder and Aust-Agder counties were merged. Since the early 1900s, the term Sørlandet ("south ...

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

Saltrød Saltrød is a village in Arendal municipality in Agder county, Norway. The village is located along the Norwegian County Road 410, about northeast of the town of Arendal and about southwest of the village of Eydehavn Eydehavn or Eydehamn is ...

. It is one of the churches for the Moland

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 Arendal 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 Agder og Telemark The Diocese of Agder og Telemark ( no, Agder og Telemark bispedømme) is a diocese of the Church of Norway, covering all of Agder county and most of Vestfold og Telemark county in Norway. The cathedral city is Kristiansand, Norway's fifth larges ...

. The white, wooden church was built in a long church design in 1878 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 Christoff Friedrich Reuter. The church seats about 400 people.

History

The church was originally built as a

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently. Often a chapel of ea ...

for the Stokken congregation of the

Austre Moland Austre Moland (historic: ''Østre Moland'') is a former municipality in the old Aust-Agder county in Norway. The roughly municipality existed from 1838 until 1962 when it was merged with several neighboring municipalities to form the new municip ...

parish. The

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 ...

church stands on a slope at Stuenes. It was designed by Johan Christoff Friedrich Reuter and the builder Carl Svendsen was the lead builder. The church was

consecrate 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 ...

d on 13 August 1879. 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 ...

, depicting Jesus in the

Garden of Gethsemane Gethsemane () is a garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem where, according to the four Gospels of the New Testament, Jesus underwent the agony in the garden and was arrested before his crucifixion. It is a place of great reson ...

, was painted by Hedevig Lund for Austre Moland Church in 1869, but the work was not accepted by the congregation at the time. Some years later, it was given to the new church in Stokken. The work needed to have a new piece added to it to function as an altarpiece. In 1929, the master painter Emil Rummelhoff decorated the church's gallery with a frieze, with heads of grain and grapes to symbolize the Eucharist. At the same time, he painted the entire interior of the church, and for the restoration for the church's centennial in 1979 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 ...

recommended that Rummelhoff's design be retained. The church bells were cast at the

Olsen Nauen Bell Foundry The Olsen Nauen Bell Foundry ( no, Olsen Nauen Klokkestøperi) is a Norwegian bell foundry located in the municipality of Tønsberg. The foundry was established in 1844 by Ole Olsen, and it is headed today by the sixth generation of the Olsen ...

in 1879. The organ has nine stops and was produced by

Josef Hilmar Jørgensen Josef Hilmar Jørgensen (March 28, 1892 – November 2, 1961) was a Norwegian organ builder. Jørgensen was the owner of the J. H. Jørgensen organ company. The company was originally called Olsen & Jørgensen from 1892 to 1925Frisk, Anna, Sver ...

in 1928. The plans for Stokken Church were later used to build

Færvik Church Færvik Church ( no, Færvik kirke) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Arendal Municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the village of Færvik on the island of Tromøy (island), Tromøy. It is one of the churches for the T ...

and

Bjorbekk Church Bjorbekk Church ( no, Bjorbekk kirke) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Arendal Municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the village of Bjorbekk. It is one of the churches for the Øyestad parish which is part of the A ...

Media gallery

Krk-saltroed.jpg Stokken kirke, Aust-Agder - Riksantikvaren-T187 01 0011.jpg Stokken, Salterød - no-nb digifoto 20151103 00043 NB MIT FNR 04658.jpg

References

External links

Stokken Church at Kirkesøk

Stokken Church at Kulturminnesøk
{{use dmy dates, date=January 2021 Buildings and structures in Arendal Churches in Agder Cultural heritage of Norway Wooden churches in Norway 19th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1879 1879 establishments in Norway

History

Media gallery

See also

References

Further reading

External links