Hólar Cathedral ( Icelandic: ''Hóladómkirkja'') is a

Church of Iceland The Church of Iceland (), officially the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland (), is the State religion, national church of Iceland. The church is Christian and professes the Lutheranism, Lutheran faith. It is a member of the Lutheran World ...

cathedral church located in

Hólar Hólar (; also Hólar í Hjaltadal ) is a small community in the Skagafjörður district of northern Iceland. Location Hólar is in the valley Hjaltadalur, some from the national capital of Reykjavík. It has a population of around 100. It is t ...

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

. It is the official church of the Bishop of Hólar, currently Gísli Gunnarsson.

History

The Cathedral lost its cathedral status in 1801 when the Diocese of Hólar was dissolved and amalgamated in the united Diocese of Iceland. It became a cathedral once more in 1909 when the diocese was re-established, this time as a suffragan see, with the bishop of Hólar being the suffragan bishop to the

Bishop of Iceland The following is a list of Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland, Evangelical Lutheran bishops of Iceland. The first bishop of Iceland was Geir Vídalín who took office in 1801. As of 2024, 15 people have held the office of Bishop of Iceland. Li ...

. The present church stands in the place of six other previous churches, the first one built in 1050 by Oxi Hjaltason. The second was built between 1050 and 1106, and the third after 1106 by Bishop

Jón Ögmundsson Jón Ögmundsson or Ögmundarson (; 1052–23 April 1121), also known as John of Hólar and St. Jón Ögmundarson or Ögmundsson (), was an Icelandic Catholic bishop. In 1106, the second Icelandic diocese, Hólar, was created in the north of Ice ...

. The fourth was built around 1300 by Bishop Jörundur Þorsteinsson while the fifth one was built around 1394 by Bishop Pétur Nikulásson. The sixth was constructed by Halldóra Guðbrandsdóttir around 1627, being the first church built in Iceland after the country became Lutheran in the

reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

. The final and present church was built between 1757 and 1763 through the initiatives of Bishop Gísli Magnússon and was designed by architect Laurids de Thurah. The cathedral was consecrated on November 20, 1763.

Tower

The church building never had a steeple. However, a tower was built adjacent to the church in 1950, as a memorial to the last catholic bishop of Hólar

Jón Arason Jón Arason (1484 – November 7, 1550) was an Icelandic Roman Catholic bishop and poet, who was executed in his struggle against the Reformation in Iceland. Background Jón Arason was born in Gryta, educated at Munkaþverá, the Benedictine ...

and his two sons, who were killed in 1550 as a result of their opposition to the reformation."Holar Cathedral"
''Nordic Adventure Travel''. Retrieved on 15 August 2017.

References

{{reflist Church of Iceland Cathedrals in Iceland 18th-century Lutheran churches Churches completed in 1763

History

Tower

See also

References