Viksdalen Church ( no, Viksdalen kyrkje) 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 in

Sunnfjord Municipality Sunnfjord is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sunnfjord. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Førde. Other villages in the municipality include Naustdal, Sande, V ...

Vestland Vestland is a county in Norway established on 1 January 2020. The county is located in Western Norway and it is centred around the city of Bergen, Norway's second largest city. The administrative centre of the county is the city of Bergen, where t ...

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 the ...

. It is located in the village of

Vik Vik (Old Norse: vík) means wick or bay in Norwegian and Swedish (''vig'' in Danish), and it may refer to the following: Places Iceland *Vík í Mýrdal, a village in southern Iceland Iran *Vik, Iran, a village in Zanjan Province, Iran Norway *V ...

. It one of the four churches for the Gaular

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 o ...

which is part of the

Sunnfjord prosti Sunnfjord ( en, the southern fjord - in contrast to Nordfjord) is a traditional district in Western Norway located in Vestland county. It includes the municipalities of Askvoll, Fjaler, the southernmost parts of Kinn, Sunnfjord, and the southern ...

( deanery) in the Diocese of Bjørgvin. The white, wooden church was built in a long church style in 1848 using designs 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 Linstow. The church seats about 284 people.

History

The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1322, but the church was not new at that time. The first church in Viksdalen was likely 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 ar ...

that was built in the 13th century. The church was historically called ''Vik Church''. Around the year 1620, the old church was torn down and replaced 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 woode ...

long church. In the spring of 1847, the old church was torn down. Construction of a new church on the same site was carried out from May 1847 until November 1848. The new building had about the same floor plan as the previous building on the site and architectural drawings by Hans Linstow were used. It was a wooden long church measuring about . The building had a

church porch A church porch is a room-like structure at a church's main entrance. A porch protects from the weather to some extent. Some porches have an outer door, others a simple gate, and in some cases the outer opening is not closed in any way. The porch ...

and tower on the west end of the

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 ...

which housed the altar as there was no separate

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...

in the building. Many of the salvageable materials from the previous church were reused in the construction of this building. The new church was consecrated on 5 November 1848 by the local

dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

, Johan Grønnlund. In 1889, the church was remodeled with some significant changes, so much so that people said the church looked like a different building. Changes included a new tower and spire were built along with a new roof. A new

was constructed on the east end of the building. The interior of the building was also updated along with all new, larger windows. In 1938, an addition was built on the north side of the

which housed a sacristy and a smaller meeting room using designs by the architect

Wilhelm Essendrop Wilhelm may refer to: People and fictional characters * William Charles John Pitcher, costume designer known professionally as "Wilhelm" * Wilhelm (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname Other uses * Mount ...

. In the 1960s, the church and parish were renamed from ''Vik'' to ''Viksdalen'' to distinguish it from another

Vik Church Vik Church ( no, Vik kyrkje) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Vik Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the village of Vikøyri. It is the church for the Vik parish which is part of the Sogn prosti (deanery) in th ...

in the region.

Media gallery

Viksdalen kirke - no-nb digifoto 20151020 00276 NB MIT FNR 03450.jpg Altartavle, Viksdalen001.jpg

References

{{use dmy dates, date=September 2021 Sunnfjord Churches in Vestland Long churches in Norway Wooden churches in Norway 19th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1848 13th-century establishments in Norway

History

Media gallery

See also

References