Sands Kirkja
The church of Sandur ( Sands Kirkja ) on the island Sandoy is a traditional Faroese wooden church and belongs to the state-owned People's Church .
It was consecrated in 1839, burned down in 1988 and was rebuilt true to the original. There are no fewer than 5 predecessor churches among them, the oldest of which is also the oldest recorded church in the Faroe Islands. The successor churches were each built on the foundation of the church beforehand.
The church is the main church in the parish of Sandur, which also includes the parishes of Skálavík , Húsavík , Dalur , Skopun and Skúvoy .
Church No. 1
The church probably goes back to Sigmundur Brestisson , who initiated the Christianization of the Faroe Islands around 1000. He is also said to have built a church on his home island of Skúvoy , which may have been the first church in the Faroe Islands. But there are no remains of her except the Sigmundarsteinur, Sigmund's gravestone.
In any case, during excavations in 1969, the first church in Sandur was found. It was a stave church . The church interior measured 5 by 4 meters, and the choir 2.5 by 2 meters. The entrance was to the west.
The Sandur coin was found as early as 1863 . These coins date from the time of the first church.
Church No. 2
The second church was built on the foundations of the first and was slightly larger. It was also a stave church, but covered with a stone wall. Only the western front with the entrance remained free. The choir had another entrance on the south side. In terms of style, it corresponds to the medieval churches in Greenland and can therefore be assigned to the 11th - 13th centuries.
The archaeologists found various remains from Catholic times here, including a. a stone holy water kettle, a bronze censer and a small oil lamp made of red tuff. 26 graves of men, women and children were found under the wooden floor. It is therefore assumed that the church was privately owned and that the relatives of the owners were buried here. 33 coins were found near the graves, most of them from Norway and dated to the period 1220-1300.
Church No. 3
This church was built around 1600 and was mentioned in writing in 1709/10. Lucas Debes writes in his book Færoæ et Færoa Reserata (1673) that the church was the main church in the parish of Sandoy, to which the branch churches Skálavík, Húsavík, Skúvoy and Stóra Dímun belonged. Stone walls clad the church walls to the north and south. The floor plan was strictly rectangular, so that the choir and nave were the same width.
The legendary Harra Klæmint ( Clemens Laugesen Follerup from Jutland) also worked in this church, who came to the Faroe Islands as a poor man and died as the richest man in the Faroe Islands. He had 23 children.
Church No. 4
The fourth church was built after 1710. Like the previous church, it was clad with stone walls on the south and north sides. Only it was wider overall and had an additional vestibule. Harra Klæmint's son, Peder Clementsen, was the pastor here. He is said to have been much more popular than his father.
Church No. 5
The fifth church was built in 1763. It was also clad by two stone walls, had a vestibule in addition to the choir and nave and, at 13 by 4.9 meters, was a little wider than the previous church. It offered space for 80 churchgoers, but this was soon no longer enough and therefore it was only 76 years old.
Church No. 6
The sixth church was built in the summer of 1839 in the style of the Faroese wooden churches , i. In other words, it no longer had a stone wall casing, but instead had large windows and a bell tower. Six workers were involved in the construction, and it is believed that Jógvan í Beiti was the builder as he received the highest daily wage. As with all wooden churches of this epoch, the carvings were the work of the workers themselves and an expression of the folk art of the time. The church seats 230 people and was consecrated on September 8th of the same year. In 1969 the church had to be renovated. The previous churches were found under the floor.
In 1988 she fell victim to an arson attack. There was great damage and all of the church silver melted. In time for the 150th anniversary of the church, however, there was again a replica true to the original.
In 1989, as part of the expansion of the cemetery, a burial site from the Viking Age was found in the Faroe Islands . In the well-preserved, 150 cm long grave, there were amber beads, a blue glass bead and a knife next to the bones. It was probably a woman's grave.
Well-known pastors
- Andrias Evensen (1902-1917)
literature
- George VC Young: From the Vikings to the Reformation. A Chronicle of the Faroe Islands up to 1538. Shearwater Press, Douglas - Isle of Man 1979, ISBN 0-904980-20-0 .
- Anker Eli Petersen : Sandur Church. Postverk Føroya 2006. (Leaflet on the 2006 Christmas stamps in German).
Web links
Coordinates: 61 ° 50 ′ 32.6 " N , 6 ° 48 ′ 27.9" W.