Svalbard Church ( no, Svalbard 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 ...

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it is about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group range ...

municipality in

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

Longyearbyen Longyearbyen (, locally �lɔ̀ŋjɑrˌbyːən "The Longyear Town") is the world's northernmost settlement with a population greater than 1,000 and the largest inhabited area of Svalbard, Norway. It stretches along the foot of the left bank ...

. It is the church for the Svalbard

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 Tromsø domprosti (arch-

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 Nord-Hålogaland Nord-Hålogaland ( no, Nord-Hålogaland bispedømme) is a diocese in the Church of Norway. It covers the Church of Norway churches in Troms og Finnmark county as well as in the territory of Svalbard. The diocese is seated in the city of Trom ...

. The red, wooden church was built in a

rectangular In Euclidean geometry, Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is a quadrilateral with four right angles. It can also be defined as: an equiangular quadrilateral, since equiangular means that all of its angles are equal (360°/4 = 90°); or a par ...

design in 1958 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 ...

Hans Magnus. The church seats about 140 people. It was the northernmost church in the world until 2017 when the St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church was built in

Nagurskoye Nagurskoye (russian: Нагу́рское; also written as Nagurskoye, or Nagurskaja) is an airfield in Alexandra Land in Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia located north of Murmansk. It is an extremely remote Arctic base and Russia's northernmost mi ...

air force base in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. The very isolated church has one minister and two other employees. Svalbard Church is the only church in Svalbard archipelago, but there is a

Russian Orthodox Russian Orthodoxy (russian: Русское православие) is the body of several churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, whose liturgy is or was traditionally conducted in Church Slavonic language. Most ...

chapel in

Barentsburg Barentsburg (russian: Баренцбург) is the second-largest settlement in Svalbard, Norway, with about 455 inhabitants (). A coal mining town, the settlement is almost entirely made up of ethnic Russians and Ukrainians. History Rijpsburg ...

. The Svalbard Church minister visits other communities on Svalbard including

Svea Svea may refer to: Name * Svea (name), Swedish female given name meaning "Swede" * Mother Svea, personification of Sweden * Svea (singer) (Svea Virginia Kågemark, born 1999), a Swedish singer Places * United States ** Svea, Florida, unincorpor ...

and

Ny-Ålesund Ny-Ålesund ("New Ålesund") is a small town in Oscar II Land on the island of Spitsbergen in Svalbard, Norway. It is situated on the Brøgger peninsula ( Brøggerhalvøya) and on the shore of the bay of Kongsfjorden. The company town is owned and ...

History

The first church at Longyearbyen was built from July to August in 1921. It 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 28 August 1921. 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 ...

, Svalbard was evacuated with the Russians returning to Russia and the Norwegians fleeing to Norway. The pastor of Svalbard Church at that time, took the altar silver, the

baptismal font A baptismal font is an article of church furniture used for baptism. Aspersion and affusion fonts The fonts of many Christian denominations are for baptisms using a non-immersive method, such as aspersion (sprinkling) or affusion (pouring). ...

, and the church books on the journey to England. The altar silver and baptismal bowl were gifts from King

Haakon VII Haakon VII (; born Prince Carl of Denmark; 3 August 187221 September 1957) was the King of Norway from November 1905 until his death in September 1957. Originally a Danish prince, he was born in Copenhagen as the son of the future Frederick VI ...

and Queen Maud when the church was built. In 1943, Longyearbyen was bombed by the German battleships Tirpitz and Scharnhorst, and in the ensuing fires, the church burned down. In 1956, the foundation stone for the new church was laid down. The architect was Hans Magnus, and the church was consecrated on 24 August 1958. The original silver altar candlesticks and baptismal bowl that were saved from the old church were used in the new church too.

References

External links

Svalbard kirke Official site
{{use dmy dates, date=February 2021 Longyearbyen Churches in Svalbard Wooden churches in Norway 20th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1958 1921 establishments in Norway Rectangular churches in Norway

History

See also

References

External links