Spangereid Church

Spangereid Church (Norwegian: Spangereid kirke) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Lindesnes Municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the village of Høllen. It is one of the churches for the Lindesnes parish which is part of the Lister og Mandal prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Agder og Telemark. The white, stone church was built in a Romanesque cruciform design in the year 1140 using plans drawn up by an unknown architect. The church seats about 300 people.[1][2]

Spangereid Church
Spangereid kirke
View of the church
58.046483°N 07.141807°E
Location	Lindesnes Municipality, Agder
Country	Norway
Denomination	Church of Norway
Previous denomination	Catholic Church
Churchmanship	Evangelical Lutheran
History
Status	Parish church
Founded	1140
Events	Expanded in 1830
Architecture
Functional status	Active
Architectural type	Cruciform
Style	Romanesque
Completed	1140
Specifications
Capacity	300
Materials	Stone
Administration
Parish	Lindesnes
Deanery	Lister og Mandal prosti
Diocese	Agder og Telemark
Norwegian Cultural Heritage Site
Type	Church
Status	Automatically protected
ID	85529

History

The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1328, but the church construction has been dated to approximately the year 1140. The Romanesque stone church originally had a rectangular nave and a narrower, square chancel. During the 1830s, the western wall of the church was removed and the church was lengthened and small additions were built to the north and south, creating a cruciform design, nearly doubling the size of the church. A tower over the new western entrance was also constructed during this expansion project.[3]

In 1814, this church served as an election church (Norwegian: valgkirke).[4] 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.[4][5]

Media gallery

• 
  Side view of the church
• 
  End view of the church
• 
  Front view of the church
• 
  Historic view of the church

See also

• List of churches in Agder og Telemark

References

1. "Spangereid kirke". Kirkesøk: Kirkebyggdatabasen. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
2. "Oversikt over Nåværende Kirker" (in Norwegian). KirkeKonsulenten.no. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
3. "Spangereid kirkested" (in Norwegian). Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
4. "Valgkirkene". LokalHistorieWiki.no (in Norwegian). Retrieved 30 December 2020.
5. "Om valgene". Valgene i 1814 (in Norwegian). Arkivverket. Retrieved 30 December 2020.

External links

• Lindesnes parish website