Høle Church () is a parish church of the Church of Norway in the large Sandnes Municipality in Rogaland 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

Høle Høle is a previous borough and a village in the eastern part of Sandnes municipality in Rogaland county, Norway, located along the Høgsfjorden. The area was historically a part of the municipality of Høle. Høle Church and Høle School ...

in the central part of the municipality. It is the church for the Høle

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 Sandnes prosti ( deanery) in the Diocese of Stavanger. The white, wooden church was built in a long church design in 1860 using designs 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 ...

Georg Andreas Bull. The church seats about 230 people.

History

The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1270, but it was not new that year. The medieval stave church stood at Høle until 1616 when it was torn down. A new timber-framed church was constructed on the same site soon afterwards. In 1814, this church served as an election church (). Together with more than 300 other parish churches across Norway, it was a polling station for elections to the 1814 Norwegian Constituent Assembly which wrote the

Constitution of Norway The 'Constitution of Norway'' (complete name: The Constitution of the Kingdom of Norway; Danish language, Danish: ; Norwegian language, Norwegian Bokmål: ; Nynorsk, Norwegian Nynorsk: ) was adopted on 16 May and signed on 17 May 1814 by the N ...

. This was Norway's first national elections. Each church parish was a constituency that elected people called "electors" who later met together in each county to elect the representatives for the assembly that was to meet in

Eidsvoll Eidsvoll (; sometimes written as ''Eidsvold'') is a Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Akershus Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Romerike Districts of Norway, traditional region. The administrative centre of the munic ...

later that year. In 1860, a new church was constructed slightly to the northeast of the old church. A portion of the old stone wall that surrounded the cemetery was used as part of the foundation of the new church. After 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 on 24 October 1860, the old church was torn down. Many of the materials from the old church were sold at auction.

References

Sandnes Churches in Rogaland Wooden churches in Norway 19th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1860 12th-century establishments in Norway Norwegian election churches {{Norway-Lutheran-church-stub

History

See also

References