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Old Edøy Church () is a historic
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 ...
in
Smøla Municipality Smøla is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Møre og Romsdal Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Nordmøre Districts of Norway, region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Hopen, Mø ...
in
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 on the southwestern end of the small island of Edøya, just south of the larger island of Smøla. Prior to the construction of the new
Edøy Church Edøy Church () is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Smøla Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located at Straumen on the southern coast of the island of Smøla. It is the main church for the Edøy parish which is ...
in 1885, it was the main church for the Edøy
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
Ytre Nordmøre prosti Ytre is the Norwegian word for "outer". It may refer to: People: *Knut Ytre-Arne (1896–1968), Norwegian politician for the Liberal Party Places: *Ytre Østfold, the outer coastal area of Østfold county, Norway *Ytre Øydnavatnet, lake in Lyngda ...
(
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 stone church was built in a
long church Church building in Norway began when Christianity in Norway, Christianity was established there around the year 1000. The first buildings may have been post churches erected in the 10th or 11th century, but the evidence is inconclusive. For inst ...
style around the year 1190 by an unknown
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 ...
. The church seats about 120 people.


History

The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1533, but the church was not new that year. The church in Edøy was first established during the middle of the 12th century. The stone church originally had a rectangular
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 ...
that measured about with a narrower, rectangular
chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...
measuring about . Interestingly, the chancel is a little crooked in relation to the nave, meaning the north and south walls of the nave are not parallel to the north and south walls of the chancel. Around 1690, the nave was extended several meters to the west to increase the capacity of the church. In 1814, this church served as an
election church An election church () is a term used for approximately 300 churches in Norway that were used as polling stations during the elections to the Norwegian Constituent Assembly at Eidsvoll in 1814. This was Norway's first national elections and this ass ...
(). Together with more than 300 other parish churches across Norway, it was a polling station for elections to the 1814
Norwegian Constituent Assembly The Norwegian Constituent Assembly ( or ) is the name given to the 1814 constitutional assembly that adopted the Norwegian Constitution and formalised the dissolution of the union with Denmark. The meetings took place at the Eidsvoll Manor in th ...
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 at
Eidsvoll Manor Eidsvollsbygningen (Literally: ''The Eidsvoll building'') is a historic manor house located at Eidsvoll in Akershus county, Norway. The building is where the Constitution of Norway was signed on 17 May 1814. The estate is now owned by The State o ...
later that year. After several hundred years of use, by the 1880s, the church was too small and old to continue as the main church for the parish, so it was decided to build a new
Edøy Church Edøy Church () is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Smøla Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located at Straumen on the southern coast of the island of Smøla. It is the main church for the Edøy parish which is ...
. The new church would be built to the north, on the main island of Smøla instead of the more isolated location of the old church on the small island of Edøya. After the new church was completed in September 1885, the old church was not regularly used anymore except for special occasions. In 1887, the church was struck by lightning which caused a fire which burned and badly damaged the building, leaving the stone walls, but destroying the roof and interior furnishings. The ruins of the old church remained as is until
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. The occupying Germans used the church ruins as a warehouse. They also constructed an underground bunker under the old chancel. From 1946-1947, the church was rebuilt in a historically accurate manner by the architect
John Tverdahl John Egil Tverdahl (1890 in Trondheim – 1969) was a Norwegian architect. Tverdahl designed many churches as well as led the restoration of several churches that were located in Nordmøre, Trøndelag, and Nordland in northern Norway. Tverdahl w ...
. The old bunker was left as is and the top of the bunker now forms the floor of the chancel. The building was re-
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 4 June 1950 and it is now protected as a historic site. In 2019, archaeologists from the
Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research The Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (, NIKU) is a cultural heritage research institute based in Oslo, Norway. Organization The institute has nearly 80 employees and regional offices in Bergen, Trondheim, Tønsberg and Tromsø. I ...
using large-scale high-resolution georadar technology, determined that a long
Viking ship Viking ships were marine vessels of unique structure, used in Scandinavia throughout the Middle Ages. The boat-types were quite varied, depending on what the ship was intended for, but they were generally characterized as being slender and flexi ...
was buried near this church. Traces of a small settlement were also found. They estimate the ship's age as over 1,000 years (from either the
Merovingian The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from around the middle of the 5th century until Pepin the Short in 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the ...
or
Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...
periods). The group planned to conduct additional searches in the area. A similar burial was found previously by NIKU archaeologists in 2018, the Gjellestad ship.


Media gallery

Edøy gamle kirke.jpg Edøy-kirke.png FV6204 Gamle kirkevei I.jpg FV6204 Gamle kirkevei II.jpg Edoey gl krk ne.jpg 12 Before Tustna (5668844115).jpg Edoey gl krk inni.jpg Edøy gamle kirke plakett valgkirke.jpg


See also

*
List of churches in Møre The list of churches in Møre is a list of the Church of Norway churches in the Diocese of Møre in Norway. It includes all of the parishes in Møre og Romsdal county. The Diocese is based at the Molde Cathedral in the city of Molde (town), Molde ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Old Edoy Church Smøla Churches in Møre og Romsdal Long churches in Norway Stone churches in Norway 12th-century churches in Norway 12th-century establishments in Norway Norwegian election churches