Valsøyfjord kirke Traditional Geocache
tormodel: Moved from the area and can´t maintain
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There are two churches in Halsa municipality. This is the "Valsøyfjord" side one. The church is on a beatiful spot not far from Otnes. From this hill, one gets a nice view of the fjord in both directions. The church sits 300 people and was built in 1863.
Valsøyfjord Kirke collage
NORWEGIAN:
Valsøyfjord kirke tidligere kalt Otnes kirke, ligger på Otnes i Halsa kommune og er kirke i Valsøyfjord sokn. Det er 300 sitteplasser i kirken. Den danskfødte arkitekten Jacob Wilhelm Nordan (1824 – 1892) har tegnet kirken. Alteret har hovedmotiv av Jesus i bønn i Getsemane. På hver side, to malerier, tilsammen fire malerier med motiv fra Jesu liv. Disse er malt av organist og kunstmaler Olav Halse. Kirken har også en utskåret (treskjæring) og malt prekestol. (Wikipedia)
ENGLISH:
There are two churches within Halsa municipality: Valsøyfjord church (also called Otnes church) and Halsa chruch (at Halsanaustan). Valsøyfjord church was built in 1863 and renovated i 1963. It seats 300 visitors. The church was designed by Jacob Wilhelm Nordan.
The church's parish is the old Valsøyfjord municipality.
Norway is a fairly secularized country. Christianity is still the state religion, even though only 1/5 of the population regard themselves as christian. Only a little percentage of those 1/5 go to church, according to research (SSB). Norway practices freedom of religion and all religious societies can get government funding if they meet a set of requirements.
Even though Norway isn't a very christian society today, the country's history is influenced by christian beliefs and -way of life. The "christening" of Norway happened in the year 1030 when the last heathen/Norse chieftain fell to the Christian king in the "Battle of Stiklestad" near the town of Verdal in Nord-Trøndelag county. Back then, Trondheim was the seat of the Norwegian King and Bishop and the Nidaros Cathedral the power centre of the nation.
Since then churches have been built on "every" hill around the country. If you drive anywhere in Norway you will se small wooden churches like Valsøyfjord church frequently. Even though most Norwegians are more or less agnostics, atheists or other kinds og "non-believers" (SSB), many appreciate the cultural heritage and the architectural heritage that churches represent. There are, however, so many small churches of different sizes and ages, that keeping them all intact is a huge undertaking and costs a lot of money. Many churches suffer from decay and are often subject to local rallies to raise money to keep them intact.
Many Norwegians also want to have their confirmations, weddings, burial ceremonies or baptisms in the church, so one can often see people and activities in and around the churches. They are still important in local societies.
Halsa
Halsa has it's pluses and minuses. Great nature. Beautiful scenery. Excellent hiking possibilities. Easy access to the main road along the Western coast (E39). Still, population is declining. Urbanization has hit Halsa harder than many other municipalities, even though people leaving for the cities is a problem in many rural areas in Norway.
Different areas of Halsa have very different identities. Valsøyfjord is an old industrial area and used to be the largest industrial centre in Møre & Romsdal county. Here, people from all over the world used to come to find work. The labour movement was very strong. Traditional boat building still stands strong here.
The other side of the Municipality (Halsa and Halsanaustan) was more proned to farming the land, land ownership and running timber industries. The labour movement was, therefore, not very strong here. One can still sense "remains" of that difference today.
Halsa is not spectacular at first glance (besides the scenery), but it is a very "honest" piece of rural Norway. And, as with most things, once you get to know the place, it actually is quite spectacular and has a very interesting history.
I therefore found making a kind of Halsa themed series was a fun cache project. There are/will be caches with short snippets of local history all over the municipality. At least one for each "grend" (village) and noticable site. If you are new to Norway, this example of a typical Norwegian municipality, everyday rural life and varied scenery, could make for an interesting experience and sightseeing.
Halsa has 1595 inhabitants and 300 sq. km. land mass, whereof 8 sq. km. is water. Halsa is also known for being the place where the world famous Killer whale "Keiko" swam to and stayed until he died some years ago.
The "Halsa" chapter in every cache decription will be identical.
"SSB" is "Statistics Norway"
FTF: ???
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nobhg 2 zrgerf