page_title: Octagonal churches in Norway
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Octagonal churches in Norway / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Klæbu church Norsk bokmål: Klæbu kirke fra sør
context_page_description: An octagonal church has an octagonal architectural plan. The exterior and the interior may be shaped as eight-sided polygon with approximately equal sides or only the nave is eight-sided supplemented by choir and porch attached to the octagon. This architectural plan is found in some 70 churches in Norway. Among these Hospitalskirken in Trondheim is the oldest. This type of church plan spread from the Diocese of Nidaros to other parts of Norway. Virtually all octagonal churches in Norway are constructed as log buildings mostly covered by clapboards. Some of the largest churches in Norway are octagonal and the list includes important cultural heritage monuments such as Trinity Church, Sør-Fron Church and Røros Church.
  This is the bright and solemn church room of classicism, whether it is such a large building [as Røros Church] or the modest rural log churches, the interior is covered and interconnected by cheerful colors of the Roccoco in marbling and ceiling. This was our last independent contribution to ecclesiastical architecture.
  — Leif Østby, Norges Kunsthistorie
context_section_description: During the Middle Ages, some 1000 wooden stave church and only 270 masonry churches were erected in Norway. During the 15th and 16th centuries, virtually no new churches were built. When church building resumed around 1600, most stave churches disappeared and were often replaced by log churches. While in most of Europe only masonry churches were built, wood construction still dominated in Norway. During the 1600 the cruciform plan tended to replace the traditional simple rectangular plan (the ″long church″). In the cruciform church, view to the altar is partly obstructed by walls, a drawback not found in the octagonal shape. The octagonal shape also allows the pulpit to be the focal point, according to the ideals of the Reformation where the spoken word (the sermon) should be the central act. Lorentz Dietrichson believed that the octagonal church became popular because of the rationalism's need for the church as a lecture hall ("auditorium").
  In 1686 the first octagonal church in Norway was constructed in Vrådal (Telemark), it was a log building that replaced a medieval stave church. The Vrådal church apparently did not influence subsequent octagonal buildings in Norway. Inspiration for the first octagonal churches in Trondheim probably came from elsewhere in Protestant Europe. Some octagonal churches within Lutheranism were erected at the same time in Sweden and Germany for instance Zum Friedefürsten Church in Saxony and Järlåsa Church in Sweden. In the Netherlands, the reformed church in Willemstad, North Brabant, Koepelkerk (Domed Church) (1607), the first Protestant church building in the Netherlands, was given an octagonal shape according to Calvinism's focus on the sermon. The Oostkerk, Middelburg is a domed, octagonal church erected 1648-1667. Johan Christopher Hempel, architect and master builder of Hospitalskirken, was probably from the Netherlands where the octagonally shaped church first appeared and spread to other Protestant countries in Northern Europe. The octagonal floor plan came to Denmark when Frederiksberg Church was built by Dutch Felix Dusart - Dusart used a church in his Dutch hometown as model. Frederiksberg Church is turn regard as model for the octagonal baroque church (1756) in Rellingen, Schleswig-Holstein. The Rellingen Church, a key baroque monument in Schleswig-Holstein, is shown on the town's coat of arms. The baroque Katharinenkirche in Großenaspe, Schleswig-Holstein, is an octagonal design with "pulpit altar" (″Kanzelaltar″ in German) used for instance in Sør-Fron Church. During the 18th century, both Schleswig-Holstein and Norway was part of the Kingdom of Denmark. Hosar suggests that Norwegian troops did military service in Schleswig-Holstein, and may have observed the new churches being constructed there at the time.
  The same time the octagonal shape provides a more rigid log structure than the simple rectangular design, allowing a larger nave to be built. Christie believes that this is why the octagonal design was adopted alongside the cruciform plan. From 1810 ten octagonal churches were erected in the rural interior of Agder counties, most of these constructions used Hornnes Church as model.
caption: Klæbu Church (1790) designed by Lars Forsæth.
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