This is indeed a nice church. It may have been build by the
cistercienser monastery at Hovedøen around 1100 to have a church close to
their farmland. The workers may have been taken from the same
workgroups that build “Hallvardskatedralen” in old
Oslo.
It was probably at
first a “long” church. This must quickly have been seen
to small, so just 100 years later a new part was added and so it
then became a cross curch. Until around 1800 the church may have
had twelve altars for different saints. Many of these sculptures
may still be seen at “Universitetets
oldsakssamling”
In 1853 a clever
person decided the church needed modernizing, and unfortunately
destroyed most of the inner church.
It took just 70 years
before it became clear that this was vandalizing and not
modernizing. Based on documentation and findings it was possible to
put the church more or less back to what it was and should be. This
was in 1924, and still we see the good result.
The church is
situated close to an old road crossing with connections to Oslo,
Ringerike and further to Nidaros. (See also “The
Wall” and “The
Old Bridge”). This may be part of an explanation of why
it is just here.
It is constructed of
quarry stone in lime mortar (see also “The
Oven”).
PLEASE KEEP THE HIDE STEALTHY, AND NOT ON GROUND