Welcome to Aurdal church
 

The church building is as usual placed with the altar towards the east. The cross groundplan was frequently used in the eighteenth century and was suitable when timber was the building material.

The builder was ”Sven the churchbuilder” Trådset. He built Bagn church too. Aurdal church was consecrated on 22nd February, 1737, by Rural Dean Abelstad. The parish priest, the Rev. Peder Landt, who had been eager to get he church built, was in charge during the conctruction period. His corpse lies embalmed under the church floor alongside one of his children.

Various alterations during the past 270  years have produced a building whose main features date back to the early nineteenth century.

The altar piece is in the so-called ”flower or acanthus leaf baroque”, a style used in a series of altar pieces of the period. The closest possible model for it is the altarpiece of Fluberg church, but here in Aurdal an old crucifix from an older stave church has been used as the central motiv.

To the right of the crucifix stands Moses with the stone law tablets. A translation error led to Moses being depicted with horns instead a halo. To the left is the high priest Aron. In the middle panel are the apostle John and Maria.

It is thought that the wings on the altar piece come from the stave church. The pulpit is probably part of an older one. Possibly the pulpit newly made for the stavechurch in 1694. At any rate the colours in the top panel would indicate an older origin.

The pulpit canopy rediscovered during the restoration of the church in 1937. The lower part of the babtismal font is from the old soapstone font from the stave church and most likely comes from Gudbrandsdalen. The babtismal font itself was wide and deep as had to be the case when the child was to be completely immersed three times. There was a hole to drain the consercrated water into sonsecrated ground. The water was consecrated Easter eve and stood in the font the whole year.

The oldest baptismal dish with four hearts in the bottom dates from the seventeenth century and is in copper. The newest dish bears as an inscription the verse Mathew 28, 19.

The church got its first organ in 1792 when the organ gallery was built. The artist Ole Hermundson Berge did the painting in 1795. The organ, a gift from Rural Dean Landts widow, was in use until the new organ arrived in 1904. In 1972 the organ was restored. It has 17 voices.

Formerly there was a choir screen. This was erected in the 1790’s but pulled down in 1887 when the church interior was repainted. The plan to put it up again during the 1937 restaration was not carried out. The lions from the altar rail now hang over the door in the nave.

Aurdal church now has two bells: one was cast in 1752 by Joan Nic. Derch from the Netherlands and is inscribed with the following verse: To rest the dead I ring, his folk to church I ring, His will for us to congregate Out loud I ring.  A medieval bell with a runic inscription was probably destroyed.

The church bible as been in regular use both in the old stave church and the new church. It was printed in Copenhagen in 1632.

Many have wondered about the siting of the church. The older stave church was about 1 kilometer farther south (south-east) and higher up. It was probably built in the thirteenths century. One tale says that disatreement about the siting of the new church led to a horse being oppointed ”profet”. It was made to drag some logs behind it and chased along the king’s road northwards. (One of the milestones from this road stands outside the church.) The horse stopped don the hill leading up to the vicarage and that decided here the church should be. The horse hardly understood that the ground there was unsuitable for any large building.

Formerly there was a pillory erected outside the church. It was last used in 1840, dismantled a few years later and donated to Valdres Open Air Museum, where it stands to this day.

The church gateway was probably constructed the same year as the church itself. Several eighteenth century Valdres churches have similar gateways, eg. Etnedal, Strand and Skrautvål churches.