Frøya Church


Frøya Church is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Bremanger Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the village of Kalvåg, on the southern coast of the small island of Frøya. It is the church for the Frøya parish which is part of the Nordfjord prosti in the Diocese of Bjørgvin. The white, wooden church was built in a long church style in 1865. The architect was the painter artist Anders Askevold from nearby Askvoll municipality. The church seats about 400 people.
The church was consecrated on 11 December 1865 by the local dean Johan Carl Christie. The church building was remodeled in 1933, 1940, and 1961. The altarpiece dates back to 1720 when it was used in the old church, located in Grotle.

History

The parish of Bremanger had a church at Grotle on the island of Bremangerlandet, just west of the main village of Bremanger for many hundreds of years. It was decided to move the location of the Bremanger parish church from Grotle to the village of Kalvåg, about to the south, since it would be more centrally located within the parish. So, the aging church at Grotle was torn down and the new church in Kalvåg was completed in 1865.
The new church at Kalvåg carried over the old Bremanger Church name to this new church site, since it was the main church for the Bremanger parish. Later, in 1908, a new chapel was built in the village of Bremanger, but that was named Bremangerpollen Chapel. This caused some controversy since Bremanger Church was located in Kalvåg. In 1952, after the church at Bremanger village had existed for 37 years, a change of names was finally decided. The church on the island of Frøya was named Frøya Church, and Bremangerpollen Chapel was given the name Bremanger Church.