Alstahaug Church

About

Alstahaug Church (Norwegian: Alstahaug kirke) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Alstahaug Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is one of seven surviving medieval churches in northern Norway. Petter Dass was the vicar at this church from 1689 until his death in 1707. The church is located at Alstahaug, a small peninsula on the southern end of the island of Alsta. It is the church for the parish of Alstahaug, which is part of the Nord-Helgeland deanery in the Diocese of Sør-Hålogaland. The stone church was built in a long church style in the 12th century. The church seats about 270 people.

History: The Romanesque stone church has a rectangular nave and a narrower, almost square chancel where the width is greater than the length. In a first construction phase, the choir and the first 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) or so of the eastern part of the nave were built using locally sourced soapstone. In the next phase, the rest of the nave was completed. During archaeological excavations under the church, no evidence was found for any previous churches on this site. From 1863 to 1865, the western portion of the old nave was torn down and a new, longer and wider nave was rebuilt...