Åknes Church () is a

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), 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 com ...

of the

Church of Norway The Church of Norway (, , , ) is an Lutheranism, evangelical Lutheran denomination of Protestant Christianity and by far the largest Christian church in Norway. Christianity became the state religion of Norway around 1020, and was established a ...

Åseral Municipality Åseral is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Sørlandet. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Kyrkjebygda. Ot ...

Agder Agder is a counties of Norway, county () and districts of Norway, traditional region in the southern part of Norway and is coextensive with the Southern Norway region. The county was established on 1 January 2020, when the old Vest-Agder and Au ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. It is located in the village of Åknes. It is one of the churches for the Åseral

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

which is part of the Otredal prosti (

deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the 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 residence of ...

) in the

Diocese of Agder og Telemark The Diocese of Agder og Telemark () is a diocese of the Church of Norway, covering all of Agder county and Telemark county in Norway. The cathedral city is Kristiansand, Norway's fifth largest city. Kristiansand Cathedral serves as the seat of t ...

. The white, wooden church was built in a

rectangular In Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is a rectilinear convex polygon or 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 ...

design in 1873 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 ...

s Tobias Flottorp and Gård Ekså. The church seats about 150 people.

History

The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1328, but the church was not new that year. The original church was likely built around the year 1250. It was a rectangular church building and it was located about north of the present site of the church. Archaeological evidence suggests the church sat in an east-west orientation and measured roughly . Historical records show that the church likely closed after the

Black Death The Black Death was a bubonic plague pandemic that occurred in Europe from 1346 to 1353. It was one of the list of epidemics, most fatal pandemics in human history; as many as people perished, perhaps 50% of Europe's 14th century population. ...

and was no longer used. By the 1600s, there was no church remaining. As Åseral gained population, the people in the northern part of the municipality wanted their own chapel. Road connections were poor in Åseral in the middle of the 19th century, and there was a real need for a separate church building in the upper part of the municipality. However, the people around the lake Lognevatnet had to fight a long battle before the chapel was ready for use. Neither the parish priest nor the municipality as a whole supported their desire for a separate chapel. But the residents never gave up and their new chapel was completed in the autumn of 1873. When they built the new church, it was decided that the church site should be located about to the south of the medieval church site. The new site was still on the shore of the lake Lognevatnet, but in a flatter, less rocky area. The new church was

consecrate Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects ( ...

d in 1873 and a small graveyard was built surrounding the building.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aaknes Chapel Åseral Churches in Agder Wooden churches in Norway 19th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1873 13th-century establishments in Norway

History

See also

References