Dombås Church ( no, Dombås 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 ...

Dovre Municipality Dovre is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Dovre. Other villages in Dovre include Dombås and Hjerkinn. The m ...

Innlandet Innlandet is a county in Norway. It was created on 1 January 2020 with the merger of the old counties of Oppland and Hedmark (the municipalities of Jevnaker and Lunner were transferred to the neighboring county of Viken on the same date). The ...

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

Dombås is a village or small town in Dovre Municipality in northern Innlandet county, Norway. The village serves as the commercial centre for the upper Gudbrandsdalen valley. It lies at an important junction of roads with the European route E6 highway ...

. It is one of the two churches for the Dombås

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

Nord-Gudbrandsdal prosti The list of churches in Hamar is a list of the Church of Norway churches in the Diocese of Hamar which includes all of Innlandet county (plus two municipalities in Viken (county), Viken county) in Norway. The list is divided into several sections ...

(

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 Hamar The Diocese of Hamar ( no, Hamar Bispedømme) is a diocese within the Church of Norway. The Diocese of Hamar includes all of the churches in Innlandet county plus the churches in Lunner in Viken county. Administratively, the diocese is divided ...

. The gray, stone church was built in an

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 ...

design in 1939 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 Magnus and Espen Poulsson. The church seats about 300 people.

History

The village of

rapidly grew during the early 20th century due to the railway and tourism. Fundraising and planning began in the 1920s. In 1928, a plot of land was purchased. The architect Sverre Pedersen was hired to design the new church, but his plans were not liked by the building committee, so they hired Magnus Poulsson instead. Poulsson intended to build a church inspired by the old 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 ...

es, but a new stone quarry opened nearby, and it was decided to use that stone instead. The new church was completed in 1939 with the

consecration Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...

service being held on 24 September 1939. On 20 February 2020, the church was set on fire in a case of arson. The fire caused extensive damages to the interior as well as the roof and tower, totaling about to repair the building. The man who set fire to the church was a Somali national who came to Norway in 2015. The man claimed to have seen on the news that a Norwegian had burned a

Qur'an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing. ...

and had not been punished. This greatly angered him and it led him to set fire to the Dombås Church as well as attempt to set fire to the nearby

Sel Church Sel Church ( no, Sel kyrkje) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Sel Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the village of Selsverket. It is the church for the Sel parish which is part of the Nord-Gudbrandsdal pro ...

. The man admitted to these crimes and was sentenced to four years and two months in prison. The church was repaired and rebuilt in 2020–2021.

Media gallery

Dombaas kirke rk 84029 IMG 9753.JPG Dombås kyrkje.jpg Dombås kirke - no-nb digifoto 20141204 00102 NB MIT FNR 20820.jpg Dombås church 2021.jpg, Reconstruction work in 2021

References

{{use dmy dates, date=December 2021 Dovre Churches in Innlandet Cruciform churches in Norway Stone churches in Norway 20th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1939 1939 establishments in Norway

History

Media gallery

See also

References