Nes Church

About

Nes Church

Few churches in Norway can bed compared with Nes Church (1250) in terms of location. At the far end of the headland, where the Neshalvøya ends in Mjøsa, the church spire rises towards the sky. It has been a beloved landmark for travellers both on land and at sea, shiny white as it is - from the time of the saga and up to the present day.

Ullinshof Kirkja en Nese is the original name of Nes church. The name originates from a hoof that was previously out here, where it was sacrificed to the god Ullin. He was the god of justice and dueling, as well as the guardian god of growth and “grøde”. The first church, a wooden church, was probably built shortly after King Olav Haraldsson traveled around the ”Oplandene” and Christianized the people here.

Nes Church was built in 1250, of limestone in a kind of Anglo-Norman-Gothic style. The church was originally a single-nave church,  a longchurch. It was expanded to become a cruciform church around 1700.

Two of the church's altarpieces were lost in a fire in 1888. After the reconstruction in 1889, a two meter high Christ figur was used as an altarpiece. This masterpiece in plaster was created by the sculptor Mathias Skeibrok, who lived on Nes for a while. (Mathias Skeibrok was the teacher of the famous sculptor Gustav Vigeland.) In the beginning, the Christ figure was placed on the altar,  and after a while moved on a pedestal behind the alter. In 1963, the statue was moved to the armeryhouse. On the altar there is now only a single cross. The wall behind the altar has three pointed arched leaded glass windows.