Ålvundeid 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 ...

Sunndal Municipality is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in the Nordmøre Districts of Norway, region located in the northeast part of Møre og Romsdal counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative center of the municipality is the village o ...

Møre og Romsdal Møre og Romsdal (; ) is a Counties of Norway, county in the northernmost part of Western Norway, Western Norway. It borders the counties of Trøndelag, Innlandet, and Vestland. The county administration is located in the Molde (town), town of M ...

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

Ålvundeidet Ålvundeidet is a village in Sunndal Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The village is located at the western end of the Innerdalen valley on an isthmus between two fjords: Ålvundfjorden and Sunndalsfjorden. The village area is l ...

. It is the church for the Ålvundeid

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

Indre Nordmøre prosti Indre (); is a department in central France named after the river Indre. The inhabitants of the department are known as the ''Indriens'' (masculine; ) and ''Indriennes'' (feminine; ). Indre is part of the current administrative region of Centre ...

(

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 Møre The Diocese of Møre () is a diocese in the Church of Norway which geographically consists of Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. Its bishop is seated at the Molde Cathedral which is located in the county administrative center of Molde. , the Bisho ...

. The red, wooden church was built in an

octagonal In geometry, an octagon () 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, which alternates two types of edges. A truncated octagon, t is a hex ...

style in 1848 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 ...

Ole Pedersen Tøfte. The church seats about 230 people.

History

The earliest existing historical records of a church in the

area date back to 1309, but the church was not new that year. The first church was located in the village of

Ålvund Ålvund is a village in Sunndal Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located at the beginning of the Ålvundfjorden (an extension of the Trongfjorden, about northwest of the village of Ålvundeidet and the Innerdalen valley. ...

, about north of the present location in Ålvundeidet. The old church may have been a

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 ...

that was built in the 13th century, but no physical description of the church exists. The old church was part of the

Stangvik Church Stangvik Church () is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Surnadal Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located in the village of Stangvik on the shores of the Stangvikfjorden. It is the church for the Stangvik parish wh ...

parish and served as an annex church for that parish. The old church was closed and torn down at some point, likely before 1589, and then for some time there was no church here. In 1838, the new

Øksendal Municipality Øksendal is a former municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1854 until its dissolution in 1960. It had one of the smallest municipal populations in Norway. It was located in the northwestern part of the ...

was established and this area became part of that municipality and a part of the

Øksendal Church Øksendal Church () is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Sunndal Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located in the village of Øksendalsøra. It is the church for the Øksendal parish which is part of the Indre Nordm ...

parish. The people of the Ålvundeid area desired their own church so they didn't need to boat across a fjord to attend church services. On 31 March 1847, a royal decree approved the construction of a church in Ålvundeidet. The new church was built in 1848 on a new site in

, about south of the old medieval church site. It was designed by Ole Pedersen Tøfte. It is an octagonal, wooden church with a tower on the centre 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 ...

. The church was

consecrated 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 (a ...

on 1 November 1848. In 1865, the Ålvundeid area was split off as its own parish. In 1955,

Roar Tønseth Roar Tønseth (1895—1985) was a Norwegian architect. He had an unusually long career as an architect, stretching from before 1920 to the early 1980s. Roar Tønseth was the son of Johannes Tønseth (1860-1896) and Henrikke Ryjord (1869-1940 ...

designed and built a

sacristy A sacristy, also known as a vestry or preparation room, is a room in Christianity, 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 us ...

and

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 ...

were added to the east and west side of the building, respectively.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aalvundeid Church Sunndal Churches in Møre og Romsdal Wooden churches in Norway Octagonal churches in Norway 19th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1848 13th-century establishments in Norway 16th-century disestablishments in Norway 1848 establishments in Norway

History

See also

References