Old Årdal Church

Old Årdal Church
Old Årdal Church
Årdal gamle kyrkje
	View of the church
	59°09′27″N 6°11′59″E / 59.157538°N 6.199596°E
Location	Hjelmeland Municipality,; Rogaland
Country	Norway
Denomination	Church of Norway
Churchmanship	Evangelical Lutheran
History
Status	Parish church
Founded	13th century
Consecrated	1620
Architecture
Functional status	Active
Architectural type	Long church
Groundbreaking	1619
Completed	1620
Specifications
Capacity	175
Materials	Wood
Administration
Diocese	Stavanger bispedømme
Deanery	Ryfylke prosti
Parish	Årdal
Norwegian Cultural Heritage Site
Type	Church
Status	Automatically protected
ID	85978

Old Årdal Church (Norwegian: Årdal gamle kirke) is a historic parish church of the Church of Norway in Hjelmeland Municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is located in the village of Årdal. It used to be the church for the Årdal parish (but now it is rarely used) which is part of the Ryfylke prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Stavanger. The red, wooden church was built in a long church design in 1620 using designs by an unknown architect. The church seats about 175 people.^[1]^[2]

History edit

The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1308, but the stave church was likely built during the 13th century. The church was torn down in 1619 and a new church was built on the same site. The new church was consecrated in 1620. The new building was constructed using some of the reused materials from the previous church on the same general site. Part of the foundation under the southwest corner of the church was the same foundation for the medieval stave church.^[3]

The church served this area from its completion date in 1620 until 1919 when the new Årdal Church was completed about 600 metres (2,000 ft) to the southwest. Since that time, the old church has no longer been used regularly, but it has been used for special occasions such as weddings and concerts. There are still two regularly scheduled worship services held at the church each year, one service on Olsok and one other Sunday morning in the summer. The interior of the church is decorated with hand-painted rosemåling.^[1]^[3]