Stord Church


Stord Church is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Stord Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the town of Leirvik on the southern side of the island of Stord. It is the church for the Stord parish which is part of the Sunnhordland prosti in the Diocese of Bjørgvin. The white, stone church was built in a long church style in 1857 using designs by the architects Andreas Grønning and Frederik Hannibal Stockfleth. The church seats about 400 people.

History

The original medieval stone Stord Church was probably built around the year 1300 on the same place as the present church. In 1724, the church was sold by the Crown to Lieutenant Colonel Hans Fredrik Green to pay for the debt from the Great Northern War. In 1854, the church was sold back to the parish and at that time, the old church was deemed to be small and in poor condition so it was torn down just after Pentecost in 1855. A new stone church was completed in 1857 and it was consecrated on 6 September 1857. Construction was led by the architect Andreas Grønning, but he died before the work was completed, so Frederick Hannibal Stockfleth from Bergen oversaw most of the construction.

Media gallery