Old Aker Church

Kirke in Akersveien, Norway

Old Aker Church (Gamle Aker kirke), Akersbakken 26, is the city’s oldest surviving building and in daily use as a parish church. It was built around the mid 12th century, modelled on Sankt Hallvardkatedralen. The church was built on the ground of the Akerestate, using limestone from a quarry which lay in what is now the area of Vår Frelsers gravlund(the cemetery of The Church of Our Saviour) and partly from material from the islands in Oslofjorden. One can clearly see fossilised squid and orthoceras in the limestone. The church lies at the top of the rise where Akersveien and Akersbakken meet. With its sturdy tower it can be seen from large areas of the city. The interior, with its heavy stone pillars and Romanesque arches, is perhaps the most evocative church interior in the capital. The form of this interior is old, but its present appearance is more modern, with its bare stone walls. It imbues a feeling of solemnity and elevation which many more modern churches lack, and which it probably also did in the Middle Ages. At that time, the walls were most probably whitewashed and it is likely they were gradually covered in murals. The church, in the Romanesque style, has a simple, three-aisled longitudinal basilican plan, with a chancel and a side-chapel, both rounded off by an apse of 210°, and there is also an altar niche in the south aisle. It has a central tower with a pyrami

Type:
Kirke

Where:
Akersveien, Norway

Coordinates:
59.92°N, 10.75°E

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