Herøy Church


Herøy Church is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Herøy Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located in the town of Fosnavåg, on the island of Bergsøya. It is the church for the Herøy parish which is part of the Søre Sunnmøre prosti in the Diocese of Møre. The white, concrete church was built in a rectangular style in 2002 by the architects Kine Tambs and Hans Petter Madsø from an architecture firm from Trondheim. The church was consecrated on 16 February 2003 by the Bishop Odd Bondevik. The church seats about 700 people.

History

The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to 1432, but the church existed starting in the 12th century. The first "Herøy Church" was built during the Middle Ages on the eastern tip of the small island of Herøya, about southeast of the present church. This was a small stone church and it was the main church for all of the outer Sunnmøre area. The church was demolished in 1859 and replaced by a wooden church, just to the west of the old building.
In 1916 the parish was getting large and it was divided so that there would be a church for the outer islands and a church for the inner areas of the municipality. Since the church on Herøya was in the middle, it was decided to tear that one down and build two new churches elsewhere. The same year, a new main church for Herøy was built in Fosnavåg on the island of Bergsøya and Indre Herøy Church was built on the east coast of the island of Gurskøy. Herøy Church burned down the night of Boxing Day in 1998. Many works of art from the Middle Ages were lost in the fire. The new church was completed in 2003.