Vilnes Church ( no, Vilnes 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 ...

Askvoll Municipality is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sunnfjord. The administrative centre is the village of Askvoll. Other villages in the municipality include Holmedal, Kvammen, and Stongfjorden. The m ...

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 t ...

. It is located in the village of Vilnes on the south side of the island of

Atløyna Atløyna or Atløy is an island in Askvoll Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. In 2001, there were 480 residents on the island. The island lies about west of the mainland coast, just west of the village of Askvoll on the mainland. The i ...

. It is one of several churches for the Askvoll

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

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 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 Bjørgvin The Diocese of Bjørgvin ( no, Bjørgvin bispedømme) is one of the 11 dioceses that make up the Church of Norway. It includes all of the churches located in the county of Vestland in Western Norway. The cathedral city is Bergen, Norway's second ...

. The brown, 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 1674 using designs by the local parish priest, Otthe Jonassøn. The church seats about 130 people.

History

The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1330, but the church was not new that year. The original church at Vilnes 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 a ...

. 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 ...

is dated as 1250 AD, so it is very likely the church was built around that time. The old medieval church stood for centuries until 1673 when it was struck by

lightning Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electric charge, electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the land, ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous ...

and burned to the ground. The following spring and summer, the parish residents quickly built a new church using plans by the local parish priest, Otthe Jonassøn. Not being an architect, the church was completed, but there were some areas of the design that were lacking. In 1686, the church had to replace part of the roof that had not been built correctly. The church was cold and drafty, and often on a windy and snowy day, some snow was able to find its way into the church. One particular story that is recorded by the priest Heiberg in the parish register was that the Sunday after Easter in 1817 he could not hold a

worship service A church service (or a service of worship) is a formalized period of Christian communal worship Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity. It may involve one or more of activities such as veneration, adorat ...

because "the church was so full of snow that you waded into it, and on the altar was probably thick with snow". After

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 ...

, the architects Johan Lindstrøm and his son Claus Lindstrøm were hired to renovate, restore, and upgrade the church. The project lasted throughout the 1950s, and they took care to maintain the historical look of the church. They rebuilt the roofs, insulated the walls, and added lights and heating. They also added a

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 north side of the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

References

{{use dmy dates, date=September 2021 Askvoll Churches in Vestland Wooden churches in Norway Long churches in Norway 17th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1674 13th-century establishments in Norway

History

See also

References