Sunnylven Church

Sunnylven Church
Sunnylven kyrkje
View of Sunnylven Church at Hellesylt Credit: Miguel Angel Barroso Lorenzo
Sunnylven Church Location in Møre og Romsdal Sunnylven Church Location in Møre og Romsdal
62°05′07″N 6°51′58″E / 62.0854°N 6.8660°ECoordinates: 62°05′07″N 6°51′58″E / 62.0854°N 6.8660°E
Location	Stranda Municipality, Møre og Romsdal
Country	Norway
Denomination	Church of Norway
Churchmanship	Evangelical Lutheran
History
Consecrated	7 August 1859
Architecture
Status	Parish church
Functional status	Active
Architect(s)	Ludolph Rolfsen
Completed	1859
Specifications
Capacity	400
Materials	Wood
Administration
Parish	Sunnylven
Deanery	Austre Sunnmøre prosti
Diocese	Diocese of Møre

Sunnylven Church (Norwegian: Sunnylven kyrkje) is a parish church in Stranda Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located in the village of Hellesylt, at the end of the Sunnylvsfjorden. The church is part of the Sunnylven parish in the Austre Sunnmøre deanery in the Diocese of Møre.^[1][2] There has been a church here in Hellesylt dating back to at least 1150.^[3]

Hellesylt with church late 1800s, Sunnylvsfjorden in the background.
Credit: Axel Lindahl

The church is a log construction from 1859 with a total of 400 seats. Captain Ludolph Rolfsen of Stryn Municipality designed the church based on drawings by Hans Ditlev Franciscus Linstow. Rolfsen also headed the construction of Hornindal Church and Nedstryn Church, both in the Nordfjord region to the south of here, and these churches share many features. Shipbuilder Nils A. Liaaen of Sunnylven designed Sylte Church in 1862 and was probably inspired by this church at Hellesylt.^[4]

Playwright Henrik Ibsen visited Hellesylt in the summer of 1862^[5] when this church was new and Sunnylven with Geiranger had just been named a separate prestegjeld (parish). The municipality of Sunnylven and the local priest, Rev. Ole Olsen Barman (born 1816),^[6] was an inspiration for Ibsen's dramatic poem Brand.^[7]

References

1. "Sunnylven kyrkje". Kirkesøk: Kirkebyggdatabasen. Retrieved 2013-06-28.
2. "Oversikt over Nåværende Kirker" (in Norwegian). KirkeKonsulenten.no. Retrieved 2013-06-28.
3. "Sunnylven kyrkje" (in Norwegian). Kulturnett: Møre og Romsdal. Retrieved 2013-06-28.
4. Ekroll, Øystein (2012). Sunnmørskyrkjene - historie, kunst og arkitektur (in Norwegian). Larsnes: Bla.
5. Store norske leksikon. "Henrik Ibsen (utdypning)" (in Norwegian). Retrieved 2013-06-28.
6. Lampe, Johan Fredrik (1895). Bergens Stifts Biskoper og Præster efter Reformationen: Biografiske Efterretninger. Kristiania: Cammermeyers Boghandel. pp. 247 and 293.
7. Koht, Halvdan (1954). Henrik Ibsen - eit diktarliv. 1. Oslo: Aschehoug. p. 249.