Holt Church

Holt Church (Norwegian: Holt kirke) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Tvedestrand Municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located just south of the village of Fiane. It is one of the churches for the Holt parish which is part of the Aust-Nedenes prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Agder og Telemark. The white, stone and wood church was originally built in a long church design around the year 1100 using plans drawn up by an unknown architect (later it was converted into a cruciform design). The church seats about 430 people.[1][2]

Holt Church
Holt kirke
View of the church
58.606921°N 08.870548°E
Location	Tvedestrand Municipality, Agder
Country	Norway
Denomination	Church of Norway
Previous denomination	Catholic Church
Churchmanship	Evangelical Lutheran
History
Status	Parish church
Founded	c. 1100
Consecrated	c. 1100
Architecture
Functional status	Active
Architectural type	Cruciform
Completed	c. 1100
Specifications
Capacity	430
Materials	Stone and wood
Administration
Parish	Holt
Deanery	Aust-Nedenes prosti
Diocese	Agder og Telemark
Norwegian Cultural Heritage Site
Type	Church
Status	Automatically protected
ID	84613

History

The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1374, but the church was likely built around the 1100. The Romanesque stone building was originally built as a rectangular nave with a narrower, rectangular choir. In 1753, the old choir was torn down and two new timber-framed wings were added, along with a new choir, giving the building a cruciform design. The architect Lars Albretsen Øvernes led this renovation.[3][4]

In 1814, this church served as an election church (Norwegian: valgkirke).[5] Together with more than 300 other parish churches across Norway, it was a polling station for elections to the 1814 Norwegian Constituent Assembly which wrote the Constitution of Norway. This was Norway's first national elections. Each church parish was a constituency that elected people called "electors" who later met together in each county to elect the representatives for the assembly that was to meet in Eidsvoll later that year.[5][6]

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See also

• List of churches in Agder og Telemark

References

1. "Holt kirke, Tvedestrand". Kirkesøk: Kirkebyggdatabasen. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
2. "Oversikt over Nåværende Kirker" (in Norwegian). KirkeKonsulenten.no. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
3. "Holt kirkested" (in Norwegian). Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
4. "Holt kirke". Norges-Kirker.no (in Norwegian). Retrieved 3 January 2021.
5. "Valgkirkene". LokalHistorieWiki.no (in Norwegian). Retrieved 30 January 2021.
6. "Om valgene". Valgene i 1814 (in Norwegian). Arkivverket. Retrieved 30 January 2021.