| Old Moster Church | |
|---|---|
| Moster gamle kyrkje | |
 View of the church | |
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| 59°42′06″N5°22′55″E / 59.70162855919°N 5.382079035043°E /59.70162855919; 5.382079035043 | |
| Location | Bømlo,Vestland |
| Country | Norway |
| Denomination | Church of Norway |
| Previous denomination | Catholic Church |
| Churchmanship | Evangelical Lutheran |
| History | |
| Status | Parish church |
| Founded | c. 996 |
| Consecrated | c. 1150 |
| Architecture | |
| Functional status | Active |
| Architectural type | Long church |
| Completed | c. 1150 (875 years ago) (1150) |
| Specifications | |
| Capacity | 80 |
| Materials | Stone |
| Administration | |
| Diocese | Bjørgvin bispedømme |
| Deanery | Sunnhordland prosti |
| Parish | Moster |
| Type | Church |
| Status | Automatically protected |
| ID | 84979 |
Old Moster Church (Norwegian:Moster gamle kyrkje) is aparish church of theChurch of Norway inBømlo Municipality inVestland county,Norway, and it is one of the oldest churches in all of Norway. It is located in the village ofMosterhamn on theisland of Moster. It used to be the main church for the Mosterparish which is part of theSunnhordland prosti (deanery) in theDiocese of Bjørgvin. The white stone church was built in along church design in the 12th century using plans drawn up by an unknownarchitect. The church seats about 80 people.[1][2]
The Old Moster Church has a long and important history in Norway. According to tradition and the historianSnorri Sturluson, Norwegian KingOlav Tryggvason built a church at Mosterhamn in the year 996 whenChristianity was first introduced toNorway. Around the year 1024, the KingOlaf II of Norway (laterSaint Olaf) held athing at Moster where the oldest Christian law was introduced in Norway, converting the kingdom to Christianity. The first church in Moster was possibly a woodenpost church. Nothing is known about the old church.[3][4]
During the 12th century, the old church was torn down and a new stone church was built on the same site. The wall openings haveRomanesque features, and the masonry is somewhat ancient in places, so archaeologists and historians believe the church was probably started around the year 1100 and completed around 1150. The church was built as along church with a rectangularnave and a narrower, rectangularchancel.[5][3][4][6]
In 1814, this church served as anelection church (Norwegian:valgkirke).[7][8] Together with more than 300 other parish churches across Norway, it was a polling station for elections to the 1814Norwegian Constituent Assembly which wrote theConstitution of Norway. This was Norway's first national elections. Eachchurch 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 inEidsvoll later that year.[7][9]
The old church only seated about 80 people, so by the mid-19th century, the church had become too small for the congregation, so a newMoster Church was built nearby in 1874. After the new church opened, this church was scheduled to be torn down, but theSociety for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments purchased it and then turned into a museum. It was restored byPeter Andreas Blix in 1896 to look like it historically did. The church is no longer used by the parish for regular worship, but it is stillconsecrated for use and so it is rarely used for special occasions.[3][4][6]
The church has a square, 5.9-by-6-metre (19 ft × 20 ft)choir and a rectangular, 12.4-by-8.1-metre (41 ft × 27 ft)nave and with an entrance in the western wall of the nave and one in the southern wall of the choir. The roof structures were replaced in the 18th century. The church is mainly built ofsoapstone from aquarry near the village ofLykling.[3][4][6]
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