Varaldsøy Church


Varaldsøy Church is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Kvinnherad Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located on the island of Varaldsøy. It is the church for the Varaldsøy parish which is part of the Sunnhordland prosti in the Diocese of Bjørgvin. The white, wooden church was built in a long church style in 1885 using designs by the architects Conrad Fredrik von der Lippe and Hans Heinrich Jess. The church seats about 390 people.

History

There has been a church on Varaldsøy since the Middle Ages. The earliest existing historical records of the stave church date back to the year 1337, but it was not new at that time. In 1724, the church was sold by the Crown to Ole Gjerdrum, the local parish priest. The King sold hundreds of churches during this time to help pay for the costs of the Great Northern War. Shortly afterwards, in 1729, the old stave church was torn down and replaced by a new timber-framed church on the same site. In 1873, the parish purchased the church back from private ownership at a cost of 615 Norwegian speciedaler. In 1885, the church was torn down and a new church was built to replace it. The new church was constructed about to the southwest of the old church site. This new church was consecrated on 25 November 1885 by the Bishop Waldemar Hvoslef. In 1970, the church underwent an extensive renovation.