Location Vågan, Nordland Denomination Church of Norway Founded 1100s Opened 1898 Phone +47 76 06 71 90 | Country Norway Churchmanship Evangelical Lutheran Consecrated 9 October 1898 Capacity 1,200 Architect Carl Julius Bergstrøm | |
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Address Våganveien, 8310 Kabelvåg, Norway Similar Strandlandet Church, Gimsøy Church, Svolvær Church, Sildpollnes Church, Lofotmuseet Profiles | ||
Vågan Church (Norwegian: Vågan kirke; sometimes called the Lofoten Cathedral) is a parish church in the municipality of Vågan in Nordland county, Norway. It is located in the village of Kabelvåg on the island of Austvågøya. The church is part of the Vågan parish in the Lofoten deanery in the Diocese of Sør-Hålogaland. Seating about 1200 people, this church is the largest wooden building in Northern Norway (north of Trondheim).
History
This has been a church site since the 12th century. Lofoten's first church was built there during the time of King Øystein Magnusson. Five or six different churches have been built on the same area of today's church over the last 900 years. One former church was moved to Værøy in 1799 (see Old Værøy Church). The present church (nicknamed Lofoten Cathedral) was built in 1898 to be large enough to accommodate all the fishermen who came to Kabelvåg each season. The church was designed by Carl J. Bergstrøm in the Gothic revival style. When the Lofoten cathedral was completed, the "old church" was still located just across the road, and that church was demolished in the summer of 1900.