Lom Stave Church

Lom Stave Church
Lom stavkyrkje
View of the church
61°50′23″N 8°33′58″E / 61.83980043179°N 8.5660757124°E / 61.83980043179; 8.5660757124
Location	Lom, Innlandet
Country	Norway
Denomination	Church of Norway
Previous denomination	Catholic Church
Churchmanship	Evangelical Lutheran
History
Status	Parish church
Founded	11th century
Consecrated	c. 1170
Events	1663: renovation
Architecture
Functional status	Active
Architectural type	Cruciform
Style	Stave church
Completed	c. 1170 (854 years ago) (1170)
Specifications
Capacity	350
Materials	Wood
Administration
Diocese	Hamar bispedømme
Deanery	Nord-Gudbrandsdal prosti
Parish	Lom
Norwegian Cultural Heritage Site
Type	Church
Status	Automatically protected
ID	84322

Lom Stave Church (Norwegian: Lom stavkyrkje) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Lom municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the village of Fossbergom in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. It is the church for the Lom parish which is part of the Nord-Gudbrandsdal prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Hamar. The brown, wooden stave church was built around the year 1170 using plans drawn up by an unknown architect. The church seats about 350 people.^[1][2][3]

The church is a triple nave stave church that uses free standing inner columns to support a raised section in the ceiling of the main nave. This type of church is amongst the oldest of the Norwegian stave churches. The church was built in a valley off of the main Gudbrandsdalen valley, about 60 kilometers (37 mi) west of Otta.^[4] This stave church is one of a very few remaining stave churches where the original medieval crest with a dragon head still survives. This item was removed from the church in the 1950s and replaced with a copy, and the original is now in a museum.^[5][6]