Rein Church
History
The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1433, but the church was likely built during the 13th century. The first church was a stave church. By the mid-1600s, the church was described as "dilapidated". In 1649, the old church was torn down and replaced with a new building on the same site. The new church was a timber-framed building with a cruciform design that was built by Palle Joenssønn. Already on 24 January 1650, records show that the new church already had several shortcomings that needed to be finished including the lack of a pulpit, altarpiece, baptismal font, and entry porch. Another inspection in 1656 shows that the pulpit and second floor seating gallery had not yet been finished. During the night of 12 December 1689, the tower blew down in a storm, causing some roof damage as well.
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 at Eidsvoll Manor later that year.
By the late 1800s, the church was in fairly poor condition. On 28 August 1886, permission was granted to demolish the church and build a new church at Årnset, about 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) to the northeast. The new Rissa Church was consecrated in 1888, and later that same year, the old Rein church was demolished. The people who lived near the old Rein Church were not happy about losing their local church, however. Within 30 years, this led to a local push to build a new Rein Church. The author Johan Bojer lead the initiative for a new church to be built and in 1932 the church was completed. It was a copy of the old church that had been torn down in 1888. The new church was consecrated on 24 August 1932. Bojer also established a fund for its continued maintenance called Johan Bojers Legat For Rein Kirke.
Media gallery
See also
References
- ^ "Rein kirke". Kirkesøk: Kirkebyggdatabasen. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
- ^ "Oversikt over Nåværende Kirker" (in Norwegian). KirkeKonsulenten.no. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
- ^ "Rein kirke". Norges-Kirker.no (in Norwegian). Retrieved 14 May 2021.
- ^ "Rein kirkested" (in Norwegian). Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage. Retrieved 14 May 2021.
- ^ "Valgkirkene". LokalHistorieWiki.no (in Norwegian). Retrieved 14 May 2021.
- ^ "Om valgene". Valgene i 1814 (in Norwegian). Arkivverket. Retrieved 14 May 2021.
- ^ "Rein kirke". Kunsthistorie. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
- ^ "Helge Thiis". Kunsthistorie. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
- ^ Erik Bjerck Hagen. "Johan Bojer". Store norske leksikon. Retrieved 1 November 2017.