Øn Church


Øn Church is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Hyllestad Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the village of Sørbøvågen. It is one of the three churches for the Hyllestad parish which is part of the Sunnfjord prosti in the Diocese of Bjørgvin. The brick church was built in a long church style in 1958 using designs by the architect Ole Halvorsen. The church seats about 370 people.

History

The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1327, but the church was not new that year. The medieval church was likely a stave church and it was located on the shores of the Hyllestadfjorden, about east of the present-day village of Sørbøvågen where the present church is located. A stone entrance gate to the churchyard has the date 1228 inscribed on it, which possibly means that is when the first church was built on the site. The old church existed there until around the year 1600 when it was torn down and replaced on the same site by a timber-framed church. In 1870, the church was torn down and replaced on the same site with a new church. This building was struck by lightning on 4 November 1940 and it burned to the ground.
Due to the occupation of Norway by the Germans in World War II, the church was not rebuilt for quite a while. There was some controversy over where to build the replacement church: on the original location at Øn or in the village of Sørbøvågen. After some debate, there was a vote held on 15 May 1947 and 157 people voted to rebuild on the old site and 272 people voted to build it in Sørbøvågen. The new church was built out of brick and concrete and it was consecrated on 15 June 1958 by the Bishop Ragnvald Indrebø.