Svatsum Church ( no, Svatsum 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 ...

Gausdal Municipality Gausdal is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Segalstad bru. Other villages in Gausdal include Follebu, Forset, a ...

Innlandet Innlandet is a county in Norway. It was created on 1 January 2020 with the merger of the old counties of Oppland and Hedmark (the municipalities of Jevnaker and Lunner were transferred to the neighboring county of Viken on the same date). 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 Svatsum. It is the church for the Svatsum

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

Sør-Gudbrandsdal prosti The list of churches in Hamar is a list of the Church of Norway churches in the Diocese of Hamar which includes all of Innlandet county (plus two municipalities in Viken county) in Norway. The list is divided into several sections, one for each d ...

(

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 Hamar The Diocese of Hamar ( no, Hamar Bispedømme) is a diocese within the Church of Norway. The Diocese of Hamar includes all of the churches in Innlandet county plus the churches in Lunner in Viken county. Administratively, the diocese is divided ...

. The white, wooden church was built in a

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 ...

design in 1860 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 ...

Otto Hjort Friis. The church seats about 250 people. The church can be reached via Norwegian County Road 255. There is a cemetery next to the church.

History

The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1344, but it was not new that year. The church is also sometimes referred to by older spellings such as , or more recently ''Svartsheim''. The first church at Svatsum was a wooden

stave church A stave church is a medieval wooden Christian church building once common in north-western Europe. The name derives from the building's structure of post and lintel construction, a type of timber framing where the load-bearing ore-pine posts a ...

that was likely built around the year 1300. This church was located at the Kirkebø farm, about north of the present church site. A wooden carving of Mary with the infant Christ and a wooden carving of Paul are found in the

Nordic Museum The Nordic Museum ( sv, Nordiska museet) is a museum located on Djurgården, an island in central Stockholm, Sweden, dedicated to the cultural history and ethnography of Sweden from the early modern period (in Swedish history, it is said to be ...

and can be attributed to having been in the stave church at Svatsum. The statue of Paul is one of the chief works of early church art from the

Gudbrandsdalen Gudbrandsdalen (; en, Gudbrand Valley) is a valley and traditional district in the Norwegian county of Innlandet (formerly Oppland). The valley is oriented in a north-westerly direction from Lillehammer and the lake of Mjøsa, extending towar ...

valley. An

altar crucifix An altar crucifix or altar cross is a cross placed upon an altar, and is often the principal ornament of the altar. History Early Christians were wary of publicly exposing the cross or crucifix for fear of subjecting it to the insults of pagans, ...

at the Nordic Museum is also believed to come from Svatsum, and it ended up at the museum (after first being transferred to

Aulstad Church Aulstad Church ( no, Aulstad kirke) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Gausdal Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the village of Aulstad. It is the church for the Aulstad parish which is part of the Sør-Gudbran ...

). Archival documents refer to repairs and maintenance at the church in the 1600s and continuing until 1724. An inspection in 1725 concluded that the church was very old and dilapidated and had to be replaced right away. This happened the following year, when a new church was built at the bottom of the valley, about to the south. The new church was 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 ...

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 ...

that included a small apartment with a wood stove so that the priest could spend the night at the church when needed. After the new church was completed, the old stave church was torn down in 1726. The church quickly fell into disrepair. By the mid-1800s, the parish began discussing a major repair of the church, but in the end, it was decided to tear down the church and build a new church on the same site. The materials from the old church was used to build the new

in another part of the municipality. An altar and woodcarving by Eistein Kjørn from the old Svatsum church were also moved to the new Aulstad Church. The new church is a

building. The new church was designed by Otto Hjort Friis and built by carpenter Johann Eriksen from

Lillehammer Lillehammer () is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. Some of the more notable villages in the municip ...

. The new church 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 ...

on 25 October 1860. The unique tower makes an almost Byzantine impression. At the eastern end of the church is a small sacristy that was added in the 1920s. The present church has three bells, two date from around the year 1300 and one from 1981; one of the older bells is no longer in use. 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 painted by Christen Brun. 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 ...

dates from 1860, and the pipe organ from 1960. The baptismal bowl is older than the church building.

References

External links

Svatsum Church at the Church of Norway website

Svatsum Church at Kirkesøk

Svatsum Church at the Directorate for Cultural Heritage website
{{use dmy dates, date=December 2021 Gausdal Churches in Innlandet Churches in Sør-Gudbrandsdal Deanery Octagonal churches in Norway Wooden churches in Norway 19th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1860 14th-century establishments in Norway

History

See also

References

Further reading

External links