St. Hallvard's Church and Monastery () on

Enerhaugen Enerhaugen is today a neighborhood in Oslo, Norway which among others includes six apartment buildings on Tøyen in the borough of Gamle Oslo, located north of the neighborhood of Grønland, Oslo, Grønland. The site is located on a hill just so ...

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

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 ...

, not far from the former

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

St. Hallvard's Cathedral, is the location of the largest current

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 ...

of the

Catholic Church in Norway The Catholic Church in Norway () is part of the worldwide Catholic Church. , there were over 151,000 registered Catholics in Norway. It is claimed there are many Catholics who are not registered with their personal identification number and who a ...

. The Catholic parish church for eastern Oslo, it was run by the

Franciscans The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor being the largest conte ...

until 1 September 2008.

Architecture

St. Hallvard's monastery and church in Oslo, designed by the architects Lund & Slaatto, has three sections: the

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

, parish offices, and the church, surrounding a circular central

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 building has three levels, built of

brick A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...

and

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactur ...

exposed both to the interior and exterior. The church attracted much attention in academic circles when it was completed in 1966 and won several architectural awards. From the outside the building is square, stern and introspective. But in the heart of building where the church is located, it is circular and packed into the square monastery building. The roof of the church room hangs down and gives the lowest height where it is traditionally highest.

In the adjacent, rectangular Santa Maria chapel the

sacraments A sacrament is a Christian rite which is recognized as being particularly important and significant. There are various views on the existence, number and meaning of such rites. Many Christians consider the sacraments to be a visible symbol of ...

are preserved. The monastery has a chancery, living rooms and cells. It is now being converted into apartments for Catholic priests. The parish office section has a vestry, offices for

Fransiskushjelpen Fransiskushjelpen is a Catholic charitable organisation in Norway, founded in by Brita Collett Paus in 1956. Its administration headquarters are in Oslo, at St. Hallvard's Church and Monastery. The organisation, connected to the Franciscan or ...

, a reading room and a meeting room.Book Review

Dagbladet () is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally it was considered the main liberal newspaper of Norway, with a ...

References

External links

Parish website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Hallvard's Church and Monastery Hallvard Christian monasteries in Norway Roman Catholic churches completed in 1966 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Norway