An octagonal church has an octagonal (eight-sided polygon) architectural plan. The exterior and the interior (the nave) may be shaped as eight-sided polygon with approximately equal sides or only the nave is eight-sided supplemented by choir and porch (or narthex) 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 (Oslo), Sør-Fron Church and Røros Church.
Form
Characteristic of the octagon circles is that the ship’s floor plan includes an octogon.
The octogonal church is a further development of the idea behind the central church form with the congregation gathered in a room around the altar. Eighty-one churches can take the form of a central church as the symmetrical structure is a vertical axis in the middle of the tower (5) as in the Trefoldighetskirken in Oslo with its dome over the octagonal / cross-shaped.
The octagonal shape is also found in other building elements. The conclusion of the Nidarosdom to the East is octagonal and is referred to as the “octogon”, but the Nidarosdom’s basic plan is cross-shaped and the judgment was probably raised as the basilica. Eight-edged crossing is found in other churches, including Voll Church. In Lavik church, both the roof and roof rafter are spirited octagonally as the ship. In Lavik, the baptismal font is octagonal. In the Trinity church, the entrance is flanked by two octagonal towers, and the shape of the ship is reflected in the dome’s octagon.
The octagonal shape may have symbolic significance in addition to building engineering and practical considerations. The eighth is the symbolic figure for the baptismal water, and Jesus will have resurrected from the dead eight days after Palm Sunday. The eighth edge can symbolize an intersection between the earth (square) and the sky (the circle), and the shape can symbolize both baptism and rebirth. The shape is suitable for the lifting of large open spaces without transverse walls. The shape gives the largest floor area compared to the timber in the roofing. The clean eight-legged form also gives the church room an intimate feel. Some of the Norwegian eight-eighth churches are built without a choir and instead have the altar in the same room as the church, for example, Støren Church. A number of eight-quarters churches also have pulpit rooms where the pulpit is set over the altar table and over a possible alter image as in Hadsel, Klæbu and Tynset churches. This event is typical of the open church room where the altar and church are in the same room. A central church, especially the great octogonal churches, is dominant in the surroundings. Examples of this are Sør-Fron and Støren churches which, with its powerful forms and marked tower, are landmarks.
Basic Plan
Eight-edge churches are found in three main variants:
Clean the octagon. The whole building is a pure octogon where the choir is placed on the eighth edge and not in an extension. The octagon can be regular (equilateral and similar) as Hadsel church, extensively extending as Klæbu church where the pulpit and altar are at the short wall or wide in width as in Sørfron church where the pulpit and altar stands at the long wall. With this variant, altar, pulpit and church are gathered in the same room.
Extracted buildings and church rooms. The ship is an octagon with arms longitudinally for cows and gun houses such as Norddal church and Flekkefjord church. In Flekkefjord and Norddal the choir is in an extension beyond the very eighth edge and the church is oriented in the longitudinal direction as in a long church. Vang church got a more elongated shape when the choir was added to an extension beyond the actual eighth edge. The building can also get an elongated shape by stretching the octagon of the ship in the length between cows and gun houses as in the former church of Kirkenes.
Combination with cross shape. With arms in both directions, there is a combination between the octagon and the cross shape. Dolstad Church is one of several examples. The great Dolstad church will originally be made for 700 seats and characterized by the eighth edge being combined with cross-arms as in a church church. The churches of Hidra, Rødøy and Hemne also have crossbones or crossforms in combination with octagonal. The Great Trinity Church also combines the octagonal shape and crossform.
Samnanger church is a church of the Basilica. The side ships have cut corners so that the building gets an octagonal floor plan. The cut corners have made it possible to construct the walls of the timber log without breaking the logs in length. According to Lidén, the octagonal form in Samnanger is chosen for construction engineering reasons.
Tower and roof
Some eighth-century churches have bells in the rooftops in the middle of the ship. The roof over the ship can be designed as a roof roof with falls in all directions, such as the Grytten church. Old Vrådal church also had such rooftops and the bells were serviced with a string hanging down the aisle. In Stordal old church there is also a rope from the bells through the sky to the aisle. Others have the tower at the end of the ship and together with the porch, such as Røros Church.
The octagonal shape of the ship can give a great distance between the outer walls as in the Vang church. Among other things, in Stordal old church, in Norddal church and in Dolstad church, roofs and towers are supported by pillars that go down into the church room. Domenico Erdmann described the church of Tresfjord as a tent architecture where the temple tent was brushed by four columns. Tangen Church has a kind of dome or crown on top of the roof roof and is worn by eight columns in the church room. In Vang church there are no pillars that support the long span and provide a room of 500m 2 without pillars. Wage church has a span of up to 15 meters without support of columns. Old Vrådal Church also had no columns.
Mansard roofs have been used, including at Sør-Fron Church. Valmtak is found at Tynset Church. The roof shape with a small gap between the steepest lower surface and the slightly slower top against the ridge or rider is rare in Norway and is mostly used only in octogonal churches. Examples of churches with such bumps on the roof are Røros, Sørfron, Klæbu and Støren.
Construction
Virtually all octagonal churches in Norway are built from timber in a log construction, notable exceptions are Sør-Fron Church, Vang Church at Ridabu in Hamar and Røros Church (stone buildings). Trinity Church (Oslo) is the only octagonal church in Norway built in red brick. These masonry buildings are also the largest among the octagonal churches. The octagonal plan creates different angles and accordingly more challenging work for the carpenter compared to buildings with straight angels such as the cruciform plan. The cruciform plan was the dominant church design in Norway when the octagonal plan was introduced. The octagonal plan offers better view of the choir compared to the cruciform plan. The octagonal plan also creates a more rigid wood construction then the simple rectangular plan (“long church” or “hall church”) allowing taller and wider buildings with a single room. Håkon Christie believed that these are the reasons the octagonal church became popular in Norway. In the basilica-shaped Samnanger church aisles’ corners are cut creating an octagonal plan. This design was chosen to make walls shorter and avoiding the need to splice logs.
Style
Harry Fett mentions in Norwegian Art History the Octogonal Church as classical church architecture with a closed, central church room that provides a good and solemn space effect:
Quotation The true church form of classicalism, however, became the octagonal church, soon ovally expanded, soon as a centralized system. Here a new ground plan was created, which in many directions has to be said to be a significant artistic conquest and which has left a number of interesting works in our country. As this basic plan has struck in our people, it can be said to be quite national. Here, autonomous to our wood material is the overthrow of European thoughts, and there are created works that must be regarded as truly completely monumental efforts in our architecture. As our stellar churches in the Middle Ages became a free depiction of our ancient travel technique with a solid and strong construction, these heavy timber churches became monuments of our lavish art with a sense of the dignity, highness and fullness of the room, which was classicism’s own. This effort has not been adequately appreciated or has been thoroughly investigated. Quotation
– Harry Fett (1927)
The octogonal churches are listed in different periods and are designed in different styles. For example, the three stone churches of Sør-Fron, Røros and Vang were listed within a relatively short period of time and with Svend Aspås involved. According to Hosar, the style ideals have changed quite clearly in the period, for example, because the Røroskirk’s heavy and swelling baroque interior has been replaced by the slimmer and simpler forms of New Frisianism and Louis-seize-style in South Fron. Neoclassisism also characterized Vang church. Other examples are Flekkefjord Church (1833), which is considered a good example of empire style. Mo church in Nord-Odal (1864) is referred to as New Gothic. Klæbu Church (1790) is referred to as Sender Barock with Louis-seize, while Hospital Church (1705) is called Baroque. Rasmussen discusses Otterøy church (1858) and Tangen church (1861) as examples of “stave church style”. One of Grosch’s typing of wooden churches is octagonal with stavkirke registry, including the tower stretched in height, and former church of Kirkenes (1862) Grosch had given a stave church-inspired tower.
Building Technique
Especially for the octogonal churches in Norway is that the building method is usually the log of timber, although the image is stone and wall. The exceptions include, among others, Sør-Fron church, Vang church in Ridabu and Røros church, which is of stone. The Trinity Church in Oslo is one of the few listed in bricks. These stone churches are also the largest among the eight-quarters churches. The short-lived previous incarnation of the Trefoldighetskirken in Arendal (1836-1888) was built in lined binding works clad with panel. Digermulen church in Lofoten is one of the few built in concrete.
The Hopsital church in Trondheim was probably planned in stone, but this became too expensive and Hempel decided to travel the same building in timber instead. When planning Røros church around 1780, there was great opposition to the work director’s desire to build in stone, partly because wall was considered a much more expensive and laborious building technique. It took four years to build Røroskirken. The church of Sør-Fron was one of the few churches built in stone at that time and deviated from the building community in Gudbrandsdalen. The farmers were not familiar with the wall building and the intelligence priest Hugo Friderich Hiorthøy had built in a large stone farm at Fron’s prestigious farm. Tolga church was built of timber in three months in 1840. The hospital church came to bed within a few months in 1705.
Due to many different angles of lafting, octagonal churches are more demanding for the carpenter compared to the churches and church churches with right angled corners. For example, the carpenter in Norddal church had to unite three logs with different angles in the transition between ships and gun houses. Besides, it was difficult to get the lap in the butt angles to seize. The angles of the lapshades should be 135 ° at the same angular octagon as the timbers of the 1700s were not familiar with. When the octagon was used in the 1700s, the cross form was dominant. The octagonal ground plane provides better visual contact between the “crossbones” and the choir than in the cross-shaped churches. The cross arms of the church churches help to tear up the ladder structure so that the church room can be built larger than the lumber construction with rectangular floor plan. Corkscrews gave a greater floor area without using a different roof structure as when increasing the width. The octagonal shape provides greater tension between the walls and is supported in some church buildings of columns in the church room. The church church, Stordal old church and several of the early eight-quarter churches in timber have bells in the rooftops in the middle of the ship and columns in the church room were inserted to carry the bell tower. In former Vrådal church no columns were used and roofs and towers were carried by large beams crossed over the ship.
The octagonal form made it possible to build quite a large church room because the eight walls stiffen each other, and Håkon Christie thinks that this is a reason why the church type became common in Norway. The large exports of wood, among other things to Holland in the 17th century, made it the most small hammocks left around 1700, but it was enough for 5-6 meter long walls. Rasmussen also believes that the many plans used in the 1600-1700s were different adaptations to the length of logs when most churches were lifted. Pedersen assumes that testing of new plans in Sweden / Finland in the 1700s also had the background for the desire to build large churches in the timber lumber. Samnanger church has sideskips with cut corners giving an octagonal floor plan. According to Lidén, cut corners were chosen to build the walls in the logs without breaking the logs on the length. Jacobsen writes about the combination of cross shape and octagon (like in Hemne’s church) that the cross arms were put on to make better space because the edge of the eard is difficult to build over a certain size in the lay technique. Tynset Church is a small copy of Røros church, but is less elongate than the Røro church probably in order to avoid long walls in the timber lumber. Winnie Church had originally the bells of the entacies who pushed the walls beyond, these were reinforced by vertical beams as well as supports. Vinne church later got bell tower over gun house so that the roof of the ship was relieved.
Background
Octogonal, polygonal or round forms of church rooms have been used for a very long time, especially before the Middle Ages and in the Eastern Church. Baptisms, baptisms, within the Catholic Church are often manganese or octagonal. San Vitale from 547 in Ravenna is octagonal and distinguishes in the way, from the churches of that time, triangular basilica. The octagonal chapel of the Aachen cathedral was inspired by San Vitale in the auditorium of the Great Palace of Constantinople. The cliff tree in Jerusalem is an example of a non-Christian building with octagonal shape. In Norway, the octagonal form has been used in, among other things, the Valbergtårnet, a guard tower in Stavanger.
In the latter half of the 1400s, central-level churches became common in northern Italy and, according to Kari Hoel, constitute a highlight in the Renaissance architecture. Leon Battista Alberti described nine basic figures for the ideal church, the eight edge was one of these along with the square, the hexagon, the tikant and the twelfth edge. Sebastiano Serlio described several churches with central planes and the eight-legged form were among these along with hexagonal and symmetrical (Greek) crossform. When the 14th century architects of the 14th century revived the ideals of ancient times, they founded the eight-sided, strictly symmetrical central building, Battistero di San Giovanni.
Church types after the Reformation
From the Middle Ages and beyond, the churches or church churches have been almost entirely in the west church. During the Baroque period, the church room was opened architecturally and round, oval or polygonal shapes were used. Martin Luther even furnished the first Lutheran church room in the castle chapel in Torgau in 1544 and placed the pulpit on the long wall raised above the congregation. The eight-eighth form fits well with the reformed church’s demand for an open church room with the congregation gathered around the altar. Leonard Christoffer Sturm, Professor of Architecture in Frankfurt, argued in 1712 that in the Lutheran churches the whole church should see and hear the priest well. The church room should be without columns. Sturm suggested placing the pulpit straight over the altar and the organ over there again in the middle of a rectangular church room. Kongsberg Church followed the first in Norway this principle but within a cross-shaped plan. Several octagonal churches were later built according to the same principle with open church rooms and pulpit salts. The former Hopen church at Smøla had the pulpit over the altar on one of the short walls and was probably the first in Norway with such an arrangement. In Grytten Church, the altar with a pulpit is directly over the floor of the audience’s chairs, and close to them so that the priest and church gather better than many other church types.
The source of inspiration for the first octogonal churches in Trondheim is probably elsewhere in the Lutheran Europe where the eight-eighth form was used. In the Netherlands, the reformed church in Willemstad, Noord-Brabant, the first Protestant church building in the Netherlands, was built in eight-edged form based on the emphasis of Calvinism on the sermon. From 1597 onwards, more such churches were built in the Protestant Netherlands. Within the reformed church communities on the continent, it was common for the choir to be shut down and that new churches were built without cows, and the congregation gathered about the pulpit. The Lutheran churches occupy an interplay between Catholic and reformed buildings during this period, and in the Lutheran churches the altar and the altar were still important. The plant species came to Denmark by the fact that Frederiksberg church was built by Dutchman Felix Dusart – Dusart mimicked a church in his Dutch hometown. (Pedersen states that it was St.Anna-Paroiche in Friesland, built in 1682, which in turn had the church in Willemstad as a starting point). Frederiksberg Church is in turn regarded as a model for, for example, the eight-pointed central church in Rellingen (Kreis Pinneberg), one of the most important baroque buildings in Schleswig-Holstein. The church of Rellingen has pulpit salts as more of the Norwegian eight-eighth churches. In the 1700’s, several eight-eighth churches were built in Germany.
Johan Christopher Hempel who built the Hospital Church was probably Dutch and it was from the Netherlands the eight-eighth form spread to Protestant church architecture in northern Europe. Grankvist believes that the octagonal shape is in line with Dutch traditions after the reformation. The Netherlands was around 1600 and later a center for reformed church building.
The first octogonal church in Sweden was listed in 1717 after the two churches in Trondheim. The eight-eighth form came to northern Sweden from Finland and the hospital church was probably not inspiration for the Swedish church builder Hans Biskop who introduced the form in Sweden, according to Grankvist. The early churches in Sweden had a clock strike, while the Hospital Church had the bells of a rocker.
In England, a few octagonal Anglican churches were built in the 1700-1800s. Among other things, St Martin’s Church (1758), Stoney Middleton (Derbyshire), and St. James (1821) in Teignmouth (Devon).
History in Norway
In Norway, the polygonal forms broke through after the construction of the Hospital Church in Trondheim with an octogonal basic form. During the planning of the Hospital Church, different variants of both cross-plan and eighth plan were evaluated, but the sources do not provide details of the arguments for and against the proposals. Soon after, Bakke church was listed with a similar shape. The Lutheran liturgy’s demands for better membership were probably a major reason for the election of the eight-eighth form. The many octogonal churches of the 1700-1800s in Norway are probably listed in whole or in part by the pattern of the Hospital Church. Only a small percentage of the 18th century churches were listed on eight-sided floor plan, but no planar shape clearly reflects the flow of time and the worship service according to Sørmoen. In the next 200 years a series of churches were constructed in an octogonal form with baroque or neoclassical style, mostly in central Norway. In addition to the general mood at that time, the Octagon in the Nidaros Cathedral may have influenced this trend. It was especially within Nidaro’s diocesan / Trondheim pin eight-legged form (and the older Y-form) was used first. Trondhjems pinch covered until 1804 Northern Norway, Trøndelag, Romsdal and Nordmøre (Sunnmøre was transferred to Bjørgvin in 1622). With the religious revival and romance in the 19th century, the traditional long church became an ideal again. In the 19th century, the eighth-edged form was a main type next to the long church and church church.
Spread from Trondheim
In 1724 an octogonal church was built on Øye in Surnadal. The church is gone but is described as a long-haired octagon around Ålvundeid church. In 1749 a similar church in Hopen arrived at Smøla at the request of the estate owner in Trondheim. The eighth-century church in Hopen was probably without a separate choir and, as the first in Norway, had the pulpit over the altar. Vassås and Dolstad churches in Helgeland are among the oldest outside Trondheim and both were listed by Nils Bech (Beck) from Trondheim. Dolstad should be built according to the pattern of Bakke Church in the builder of Bech’s hometown – “Bakke Church has served as a pattern for both structures and towers, which had their distinctive appearance.” Norddal Church from 1782 was the first eighth-century church on Sunnmøre. The builder (probably as architect of the church) traveled to Trøndelag to look at relevant church buildings as a pattern for a new church in Norddal. In the “vicinity” of Trondheim they found a church they liked and the construction master drew a groundwork. It was probably the Hospital Church they copied, but it might also have been Bakke Church, which was then in Strinda. In the following years, several churches of the same shape were built near Norddal, at Sunnmøre (for example, Stordal old church), in Nordfjord (Innvik church), and in Tresfjord in Romsdal. Grosch ‘s draft for Ulstein Church (1848) had octagonal ground plan with stave church forms. Grosch, according to Eldal, copied the octogonal plan form from the local tradition in Northwest Norway, as evidenced by proposals he had received.
Røros School
Røros Church (1784) was a new type of eight-quarters church. Røros church is the first building in stone, it is much larger than the elderly and the eighth edge is more elongated. Røros church also has a tower at the end of a ship with a gunhouse in the tower foot (instead of rafting). The church at Røros had the church of Kongsberg as a clear example. Sør-Fron Church deviates from the building structure in Gudbrandsdalen, both in form and in material. Builder Aspaas came from Røros where he participated in the construction of the church a few years earlier. Fronings who had participated in the war of Schleswig-Holstein, other well-known farmers, priests and officers of German background may also have brought new ideas to Gudbrandsdalen. Hosar concludes that the ideas of the various elements of the South Fron church are taken from outside, but that the assembly of a comprehensive building has taken place locally. Klæbu church was built in timber 1789-1790 and according to Hosar on the basis of in-depth knowledge of Røros and Sør-Fron churches. Vang church has a similarity with Røros church, but with less pronounced elongated form. According to Fett, a number of later churches in Oppland (Jevnaker, Åmot and Hunn) were influenced by Vang church. Svend Aspaas probably made the model “sent in a sack” to Torpa when Åmot church was to be built. The same model should have been used for Hunn and Jevnaker churches. The kitty church in Rauma should have had the South Fron church as a model. Munch believes that it was Røros church that seriously introduced the octogonal form and Røroskirken’s form was transferred to wood construction in the surrounding areas, in Trøndelag, Møre, Northern Norway and in southern Norway. In Tynset church, the shape of the Røroskirk is transferred to timber and on a smaller scale, churches with this form are referred to as the Røros type. Svend Aspås designed the Great Elvdal church and this probably formed the pattern of the Tolga church as the son Rasmus Aspås drawn in 1840.
Agder
With the exception of the first octogonal church in Flekkefjord (1790), the church form was taken late in Agder and then with a distinctive character. After 1825, 10 octagonal churches were erected in the inner settlements of Agder. Hornnes Church (1828) was built on the basis of Lars Larsen Forsæth’s drawing of Klæbu church. Hornnes church was then modeled for several of the other churches there. Among other things, Årdal (Bygland), Hægeland and Mykland churches are listed according to the pattern of Hornnes or according to the same drawing, but the builders made some of their own changes.
Government Management
The older churches often have unknown architects or they were designed by the builder as “built by their own head”. It was the king as the head of the church to formally approve church construction, but the application usually contained little or nothing about the design of the building, it was about financing and material use. The church builder, the priest and the funded building largely determined the appearance of the building. Sørmoen assumes that the builders, specializing in a church type, were chosen after the design of the building was decided. After 1814, matters related to church buildings were moved from the chancellor of Copenhagen to the church department of Christiania, and the approval process became more bureaucratic and the design of the churches was governed by the ministry. In the 19th century, professional architects entered the Norwegian church building, with Hans Ditlev Franciscus von Linstow as one of the first. The architectural pattern drawings were used throughout the country. Grosch drawings were used for example for Begnadalen, Hval, Rogne and several other churches. In the middle of the 19th century, the eight-quarters churches were also influenced by history, some eight-quarters churches were inspired by stave churches.
The Church Act of 1851 required every church building to accommodate at least 30% of the population in the community. The many hundred churches from the second half of the 19th century are therefore relatively large. Many 18th-century churches were built after 1851, but the church building in the latter half of the 19th century was otherwise dominated by the Norwegian one-way long churches.
After the Second World War, a few octagonal churches were built, among others, Hasvik Church, to replace the one who was burned during evacuation. The octagonal Sørreisa church which burned in 1987 was listed by the pattern of Dverberg church. New church was built in 1992 where the square floor plan encloses an octagonal church room that reflects the lost church..
Lost building
Everything in 1686 was built at Roholt in Vrådal, an octagonal church (before the Hospital Church of 1705), it was a promised church that replaced a stave church from the Middle Ages. Vrådal Old Church was a clean octagon in timber with a built-in porch and later expanded with cages for cows. It had a steep octagonal ceiling with octagonal rooftops and high spirits. There were no columns in the church room, so the sprout was supported by heavy beams resting on the outer walls and placed in a big cross across the church room. It is unclear how this unusual form came to a small village in Upper Telemark. The church in Vrådal should not have affected later eight-edged church buildings. According to Grankvist, the church in Vrådal has been referred to as octagonal and hexagonal, and Grankvist thinks it might be hexagonal so that the Church Church is still the first with this form in Norway. Other lost buildings appear from the table where the last destroyed was the Sørreisa church as burned in 1987.
Architects
Johan Christopher Hempel, Trondheim’s “Building and Murmester”, stood for Hospital Church and Bakke Church, the two oldest eight-square churches. About 80 Norwegian churches were listed according to the typing of Linstow, among which are several churches in Agder (Flekkefjord, Hylestad, Sandnes Church and Chapel, and Kvinesdal) eight-quarters. Wilhelm von Hanno completed the Trinity Church based on drawings by Alexis de Chateauneuf. Among the architects of the other churches are well-known architects like Grosch, and builders, parishioners and eidsvollmen.
Grosch’s draft Ulstein Church had tall, slim roof racks, following the pattern of Borgund and Heddal stave churches on an octagonal floor plan. Grosch’s drawing was not used for the finally built, but the trials with stave church shapes were reused in a pattern drawing designed for the ministry in 1851 (published 1854). The printed pattern drawings also contained design drawings. According to Eldal, these drawings were used 10-15 different places, mainly West Norway and Trøndelag.
Svend Aspaas from Røros led the masonry at the completion of the large octagonal church at Røros (1779-84). After the success of Røros church, the mining station sent him to Falun in 1784 to learn more about building engineering. Then Aspas South Fron built (1786-92) and he designed the octagonal wooden church in Stor-Elvdal. The big stone church in Vang was designed by the parish priest Abraham Pihl and the work was completed by Svend Aspås. His son Rasmus Aspaas designed Tolga church. Peder Ellingsen collaborated with Svend Aspaas to Røros Church and built a couple of years later Tynset Church.
Ulstein Church and Stordal Old Church were designed by the respective parish priests. While Innvik church was designed by construction chief Elling Olsson Valbø, eidsvollsmannen from Ørskog. In Ørskog there was an eighth-century church from 1807 (moved to Herøy in 1872), Elling Valbø is considered architect for this building and was also the builder of the former Hareid church (which should have been designed by the parish priest). Farmer and craftsman Ole Pedersen Tøfte stood behind Romfo and Ålvundeid churches in Sunndal. Anders «Churchbuilder» Syrtveitbuilt the eight-eighth circles of Hylestad, Hægeland, Sandnes and Årdal in Agder. Hægebostad church was planned by parish priest Hald and the drawings approved by Grosch with minor remarks.
The later eidsvoll man Lars Forseth was the architect of Klæbu church and, together with Svend Aspås, is listed as the author of Støren kirke. Forsæth’s drawings of Klæbu church were also the basis for Hornnes church, which in turn was the model for several eight-eighth churches in Agder.
Proliferation
During the period 1750-1830 there were 230 churches in Norway. Of these, 35 were eight-sided, 62 had long-term plans and 110 had cross-sections. Half of the eight-quarters churches (17) were listed in the then Trondheim peninsula. Later, the plan was also common in Agder. Of 13 church buildings listed in Møre og Romsdal in the period 1800-1850, 11 are octogonal.
Among the eight-quarters churches are three stone churches among the country’s largest church buildings: Røros (1640 seats), the Trinity Church (1000 seats, 1200’s), and Vang (1000 seats). Tynset Church is the largest among the treks with 700 places . Flekkefjord and Stor-Elvdal churches are also given to over 600 places. Harry Fett assumes that Åmot Church is the largest building of timber architecture.
Source from Wikipedia