Eidsvoll Church (Norwegian: ''Eidsvoll Kirke'') is a

cruciform Cruciform is a term for physical manifestations resembling a common cross or Christian cross. The label can be extended to architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly described ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

from c. 1190 in

Eidsvoll Eidsvoll (; sometimes written as ''Eidsvold'') is a municipality in Akershus in Viken county, Norway. It is part of the Romerike traditional region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Sundet. General information E ...

Viken Viken may refer to: *Viken, Scandinavia, a historical region *Viken (county), a Norwegian county established in 2020 *Viken, Sweden, a bimunicipal locality in Skåne County, Sweden *Viken (lake), a lake in Sweden, part of the part of the Göta cana ...

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 ...

. The Romanesque building is of stone and probably one of the first cruciform stone churches to be built in Norway. Close to Eidsvoll Church there is an ancient

sunken lane A sunken lane (also hollow way or holloway) is a road or track that is significantly lower than the land on either side, not formed by the (recent) engineering of a road cutting but possibly of much greater age. Various mechanisms have been pro ...

that was used as a path far into the last century. Eidsvoll Church is listed and protected by law by 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 ...

. Sigrid Marie Christie, Håkon Christi
Eidsvoll kirke
Norske kirkebygg Eidsvoll kirkested

History

The church building has repeatedly been affected by fire and rebuilt. After the last major fire in 1883, the church was partly rebuilt in

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

s. In 1678,

Johannes Skraastad Johannes Skraastad (1648–1700) was a Norwegian artist from Vang. He carved a number of well-known altar pieces and pulpits, many of which can still be seen today. Skraastad is best known for carving the altar pieces in Våler Church, Øvre Re ...

(1648-1700) made an

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 ...

for the church. This altarpiece was presumably lost in the fire in 1762. The altarpiece that is in the church dates from 1765 and consists three oil paintings on top of each other in the midfields, surrounded by

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s. The images represent (from below) the

Last Supper Image:The Last Supper - Leonardo Da Vinci - High Resolution 32x16.jpg, 400px, alt=''The Last Supper'' by Leonardo da Vinci - Clickable Image, Depictions of the Last Supper in Christian art have been undertaken by artistic masters for centuries, ...

, together with the

Crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagin ...

and the

Resurrection of Jesus The resurrection of Jesus ( grc-x-biblical, ἀνάστασις τοῦ Ἰησοῦ) is the Christian belief that God raised Jesus on the third day after his crucifixion, starting – or restoring – his exalted life as Christ and Lo ...

. The present reconstructed pulpit is from 1956, following the suggestion of architect Bjarne Hvoslef (1890-1989). The church organ dates from 2003 and was built by Orgelbau Kuhn. The three

church bell A church bell in Christian architecture is a bell which is rung in a church for a variety of religious purposes, and can be heard outside the building. Traditionally they are used to call worshippers to the church for a communal service, and t ...

s were cast by

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 ...

; two in 1885 and one in 1898.

Notable ministers

Nicolai Wergeland Nicolai Wergeland (9 November 1780 – 25 March 1848) was a Norwegian minister, writer and politician, and a member of the Norwegian Constituent Assembly at Eidsvoll that wrote the Constitution of Norway on 17 May 1814. He was elected as one of ...

(1817) *

Eilert Sundt Eilert Lund Sundt (8 August 1817 – 13 June 1875) was a Norwegian theologist and sociologist, known for his work on mortality, marriage and other subjects among the working class. He was an early pioneer of the field of sociology in Norway. Ear ...

(1869–1875)

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Churches in Viken Stone churches in Norway 12th-century churches in Norway