Helleland Church
History
The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1380, but it was built well before that time. The first church may have been a stave church dating back to the 13th century. In 1629, the old church was torn down and replaced with a new timber-framed building in a long church style. Some of the materials from the old church were reused in the construction of the new church.
In 1814, this church served as an election church (Norwegian: valgkirke). 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.
In 1832, the church was torn down and replaced with a new church on the same site (this is the present church which is still in use). The new church was much larger, seating about 500 people.
See also
References
- ^ "Helleland kirke, Eigersund". Kirkesøk: Kirkebyggdatabasen. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
- ^ "Oversikt over Nåværende Kirker" (in Norwegian). KirkeKonsulenten.no. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
- ^ "Helleland kirkested" (in Norwegian). Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
- ^ "Valgkirkene". LokalHistorieWiki.no (in Norwegian). Retrieved 7 February 2021.
- ^ "Om valgene". Valgene i 1814 (in Norwegian). Arkivverket. Archived from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 7 February 2021.