Hove Church
History
The construction of simple religious building is dated to the period around 1170. According to several historians, the church may have been built by a landowner as a private church. The present church is the succession to an even earlier church policy. Overall, only a few facts are handed down through the building of the church. In order to build however, there is a legend:
" A citizen of Hove was sentenced to death for a crime. However, if he could build a stone church within a week, the penalty would adopt him. He went to the Hovhügel on which now stands the church and was desperate for the task impossible odds. A stranger came by and condemned to death told him his story. The stranger promised him help and that the church was ready in time. He would not be paid if the convicted person would get out his name until the completion of construction. If this does not succeed him, so he had to come with the stranger. The convict got involved in the trade, trying desperately to determine the name of the unknown. When paid by the foreign workers already built the tower, the convicted despair began to cry. Suddenly he heard a child in the mountains, which also wept. The mother calmed the child with the words, " Soon will come your father, Ivar Vinkjell back home with human flesh ." When the man heard this he went back to the church. The stranger was about to fasten the top of the church tower. The man walked around the church and said:. . " I find that the tip is a little crooked, Ivar Vinkjell " When Vinkjell heard his name he fell from the steeple and died "
Various grave finds from the Roman period indicate that Hove was a center of power in Vik earlier.
Construction
The west tower of the church of Hove has a square base; the ship a rectangular. The choir is rectangular with a semicircular apse. The choir has been bricked in highest quality. These soapstone were used. The joints are so tight that no lime was necessary. This part of the church was probably built as the first, possibly by specialists from Bergen. The masonry in the west of the church is made up of much coarser and less processed stones than the eastern part. It is believed that either simpler craftsmen took over the construction or economic reasons played a role.
In front of the tower is the west portal, while the south portal is located west in the ship.
Interior decoration
Originally there was in the church a wooden Madonna from the 13th century. It may have been made in mountains. It is now in the local museum. The rest of the interior was originally extremely simple.
Restoration
The architect Peter Andreas Blix (1831-1901) acquired in 1880 the church after he got an offer from a builder in Vik to acquire soapstone. These were to soapstone from the church of Hove. This had been closed ten years ago and approved for demolition. Blix restored the church after the acquisition through its own resources. He held it to his default, to restore the original state of the church much detail as possible. The soapstone needed for the restoration was won by the original old soapstone quarry near. In the church Blix away everything that did not come from the Middle Ages. The walls he sided with patterns from the middle ages, wrought iron chandelier came up at the ceiling and the windows were stained glass. On the old tower base Blix built a large stone tower. Previously here was a wooden tower from the 17th century. However, there is uncertainty as to whether the Church ever previously had a stone tower. Maybe the roof over the tower base was simply continued on in the same amount. Blix died in 1901 and was buried under the floor in the church. On his grave table is something like: " For the love of art, he built this house of God again ."
The Church
One of the two entrance portals
The other portal