Tønsberg Cathedral Church
The Cathedral Tønsberg (Norwegian: Tønsberg Cathedral ) is the Lutheran bishop's church in the southern Norway town Tønsberg and is the seat of the diocese Tønsberg. Originally it was a parish church, but was raised to the rank of cathedral when the diocese was founded , which split off from the Oslo diocese in 1948 .
A few hundred years ago, Tønsberg was an important ecclesiastical center in southern Norway. In the Middle Ages there were seven churches and three monasteries in place, of which only ruins are preserved today. Today's neo-Gothic brick church was built over the ruins of St. Laurentius , which was built in the 12th century and demolished in 1814. The building owner of the church, which was completed in 1858, was the Danish-Norwegian architect Christian Heinrich Grosch . The first restoration was carried out as early as 1939 under Arnstein Arneberg, who gave the cathedral its current appearance. The raised central nave is separated from the lower aisles by two rows of columns.
The altarpiece of the church shows Jesus fighting in Gethsemane , which was painted by JP Lindegård in 1760. The pulpit artist from 1621 is not known; the four evangelists with their symbols can be seen as motifs. Pulpit, altar and other paintings showing the baptism of Jesus and the Last Supper come from the old Marienkirche. There are three bells hanging in the tower, the oldest from 1530 also coming from the Marienkirche. The smallest of the bells was taken from the Laurentius Church and dates from 1685. The youngest bell was donated by Tønsberger Sparkasse during the restoration in 1939. The stained glass windows, also created on the occasion of Per Vigeland's restoration, show motifs from the Old and New Testament. The fresco above the south door, which portrays Jesus as a good shepherd, also comes from him. The church treasury also includes two precious Bibles: one from 1550, the other from 1589.
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Coordinates: 59 ° 16 ′ 9.1 ″ N , 10 ° 24 ′ 16.4 ″ E