Location Bømlo, Hordaland Denomination Church of Norway Status Parish church | Country Norway Churchmanship Evangelical Lutheran Functional status Active | |
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Old Moster Church (Norwegian: Moster gamle kyrkje) is a parish church in Bømlo municipality in Hordaland county, Norway, and it is one of the oldest churches in all of Norway. It is located in the village of Mosterhamn on the island of Moster. The church is part of the Moster parish in the Sunnhordland deanery in the Diocese of Bjørgvin.
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History
The Old Moster Church has a long and important history in Norway. According to tradition and the historian Snorri Sturluson, Norwegian King Olav Tryggvason built a church at Mosterhamn in the year 998 when Christianity first introduced to Norway. Around the year 1024, the King Olaf II of Norway (later Saint Olaf) held a thing at Moster where the oldest Christian law was introduced in Norway, converting the kingdom to Christianity. The current stone church was probably built around the year 1150 on the site of the original wooden church. The church is protected and owned by the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments. The old church only seats about 100 people, so in the mid-19th century, the church had become too small for the congregation, so a new Moster Church was built nearby. This church was then turned into a museum, although it is still consecrated for use and it is still used for special occasions.
Design
The church has a square choir and a rectangular nave and with an entrance in the western wall of the nave and one in the southern wall of the choir. The roof structures were replaced in the 18th century. The church is mainly built of soapstone from a quarry near the village of Lykling.