Hyen Church

About

Hyen Church (Norwegian: Hyen kyrkje) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Gloppen Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the village of Straume, near the shore of the Hyefjorden. It is the church for the Hyen parish which is part of the Nordfjord prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Bjørgvin. The white, wooden church was built in a long church style in 1876 by the architect Karl Uchermann. The church seats about 300 people.

History: The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1308, but it was not new at that time. The first church was likely a wooden stave church that was likely built in the 13th century. This church was located at the village of Hope, about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) west of the present location at Straume. Sometime around the mid-1300s, around the time of the Black Death in this region, the church was closed down and no longer used. Eventually the church was torn down. Parishioners living in the Hyen area were forced to make the long, arduous journey by boat to the Vereide Church. For about 500 years, there was no church in Hyen. In the early 1800s, residents of the Hyen area tried very hard to get a local...