Søre Ål Church () is a

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 ...

Lillehammer Municipality Lillehammer Municipality is the local government for Lillehammer, Norway. The administration is located in the town of Lillehammer. The municipality is governed by a 47-member municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a ...

Innlandet Innlandet is a Counties of Norway, county in Norway. It was created on 1 January 2020 with the merger of the old counties of Oppland and Hedmark (Jevnaker Municipality and Lunner Municipality were transferred to the neighboring county of Viken ( ...

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 south part of the town of Lillehammer. It is the church for the Søre Ål

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

Sør-Gudbrandsdal prosti The list of churches in Hamar is a list of the Church of Norway churches in the Diocese of Hamar in Norway. It includes all of the parishes in Innlandet county plus the parishes in Lunner Municipality in Akershus county. The diocese is based at th ...

(

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 Hamar The Diocese of Hamar () 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 Municipality in Akershus county. Administratively, the diocese is divided into 1 ...

. The gray, concrete church was built in a

rectangular In Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is a rectilinear convex polygon or a quadrilateral with four right angles. It can also be defined as: an equiangular quadrilateral, since equiangular means that all of its angles are equal (360°/4 = 90 ...

design in 1964 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 ...

Bjarne Bystad Ellefsen. The church seats about 200 people.

History

In the mid-20th century, the parish decided to build a cemetery at Søre Ål. The new cemetery was

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 ...

in 1953. Soon after, the parish decided to build a church at the cemetery site. Bjarne Bystad Ellefsen was hired to design the new church. It was built out of concrete and wood and it was completed in 1964. The

altarpiece An altarpiece is a painting or sculpture, including relief, of religious subject matter made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting or sculpture, ...

Victor Sparre Victor Sparre (né Smith; 4 November 1919 – 16 March 2008) was a Norwegian painter, glass designer and non-fiction writer. Personal life Sparre was born in Bærum as the son of librarian Victor Alf Smith and Eli Sparre. He was married to nurse ...

shows a thorn-crowned Christ head with a cross in the background. There is also a glass

frieze In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...

, showing the eyes of God, along the altar wall.

Søre Ål parish

Gårdsnummer The gårdsnummer or cadastral unit number is the number of a farm unit in the Norwegian land register and it serves as the assessor's parcel number. The modern abbreviation is Gnr, although the Norske Gaardnavne ''Norske Gaardnavne'' (English: Nor ...

59-98 were included in this parish. The attached KML file shows the church location and the farm locations in Gnr/ Bnr format.

References

External links

Kirkesok Søre Ål kirke

Kulturminnesøk Søre Ål kirkested
{{use dmy dates, date=December 2021 Buildings and structures in Lillehammer Churches in Innlandet Churches in Sør-Gudbrandsdal Deanery Rectangular churches in Norway Concrete churches in Norway 20th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1964 1964 establishments in Norway

History

Søre Ål parish

See also

References

External links