Old Aker Church: Oslo’s Medieval Lutheran Parish Church
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Norway
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Modern
- Civilizations
- Norwegian
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page8 sections
History
Old Aker Church is a medieval church in Oslo, Norway, probably completed around 1150 in the Romanesque style, a medieval tradition of massive masonry and rounded structural forms. It is the oldest existing building in the city and remains an active parish church of the Lutheran Church of Norway in the Diocese of Oslo.
Medieval origins
The church was probably begun around 1080, traditionally in connection with King Olav Kyrre, also known as Olav III, an eleventh-century king of Norway. Its precise construction date remains uncertain, although completion around 1150 is considered more likely. The building may have been intended to serve all Vingulmark, the historic district that included the area around Oslo.
The church grounds probably occupied the site of a regional thing, a pre-modern assembly with judicial, political, and administrative functions, before the Christianization of the area. The church also stands above the former Akerberg silver mines, which were in use from the early Viking Age and were mentioned in the Historia Norvegiae around 1170. This mining association may have encouraged local stories about hidden silver treasures and dragons in underground chambers beneath the church.
From convent church to fortress possession
In 1186, Old Aker Church was donated to the Convent of Nonneseter, which retained it until the Reformation. The Reformation was the sixteenth-century religious movement that transformed western European Christianity and established Lutheran institutions in Scandinavia. During the winter of 1532, Mogens Gyldenstjerne, lord of Akershus Fortress, plundered the church as punishment for Catholic clergy who opposed Frederick I of Denmark, the new Lutheran king.
In 1537 the church was united with the castle church, and its pastor served both buildings. By 1587, Old Aker Church had come into the possession of Akershus Fortress. Fires and further pillage repeatedly damaged the building. A fire in 1592 caused losses among the furnishings, while the fire of 1703 destroyed the tower, bells, and entire inventory, contributing to the later deterioration of the tower and interior.
Private ownership and nineteenth-century preservation
The church was privately owned from the 1720s until 1849. Four landowners from Aker acquired it in 1732, but inadequate maintenance led the municipality of Aker to consider demolition after it reacquired the building in 1849. Public protests prevented that decision. During the reorganization of Aker and Christiania, the church passed into municipal ownership in the 1850s, and the new administration chose restoration instead of demolition.
Heinrich Ernst Schirmer and Wilhelm von Hanno rebuilt the exterior and central tower in 1861. The Gamle Aker parish was established in the same year. Gustav Jensen served as curate from 1874, and Knud Karl Krogh-Tonning was parish priest from 1886 until around 1900. Interior restoration between 1950 and 1955 removed later coverings and helped return the church to a more medieval appearance while restoring its Baroque furnishings.
War, burial ground, and protection
After Nazi Germany occupied Norway in April 1940, the coffin of Queen Maud of Norway was secretly moved to Old Aker Church on 19 April. Eivind Josef Berggrav, Bishop of Oslo and Primate of the Church of Norway, and royal court official Peter Broch ordered the transfer. The coffin remained concealed in the crypt until 1949, when the queen’s remains were moved to the Royal Mausoleum at Akershus Castle.
Old Aker Church is automatically protected as a Norwegian cultural heritage site. Old Aker Cemetery has been used since the Middle Ages, with expansions in 1918 and 1929. Burials are restricted to members of the parish. Those interred there include military officer Georg von Bertouch, businessman John Collett, statesman Enevold de Falsen, lay preacher Hans Nielsen Hauge, astronomer Christopher Hansteen, historian Christian C. A. Lange, architects Adolf Schirmer, Herman Major Schirmer, and Lilla Hansen, industrialist Benjamin Wegner, and businesswoman Henriette Wegner.
Remains
Old Aker Church is a Romanesque, three-aisled basilica, a longitudinal church with a central nave flanked by lower side aisles. It is built of limestone and has no transept. Massive supporting pillars divide the interior, while the plan includes a choir, a chapel, and two apses associated with the central and eastern parts of the building. The church stands on top of Telthusbakken in the St. Hanshaugen borough, enclosed by Old Aker Cemetery and a stone wall. The cemetery lies beside the newer Cemetery of Our Saviour, established in 1808.
Stone church and apses
The walls are formed from large, carefully squared blocks of gray to reddish limestone, apparently quarried locally. The simple gabled facade is divided into three sections that correspond to the three internal aisles. The eastern apse has an unusual curve of approximately 210 degrees rather than the more familiar 180-degree semicircle. On the exterior of an apse, a carved serpent biting its own tail forms a relief associated with the image of the entire world. It is described as the church’s only sculpted decoration.
Tower and interior furnishings
The present central tower dates from 1861, when Schirmer and von Hanno directed the rebuilding of the exterior. Inside, the church retains a Baroque pulpit and a baptismal font dated 1715. These furnishings belong to a later phase of the building’s history and were restored during the mid-twentieth-century work.
The restoration carried out from 1950 to 1955 removed later wall coverings from the brick walls. Windows opened at a later date were closed, while original openings were brought back into use, including the small window in the central apse. Together with the surviving limestone structure, the apses, pillars, furnishings, and restored openings, these elements preserve the character of a rare medieval Norwegian masonry church.
