Kirkenes Church ( Norwegian : Kirkenes kirke ) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Sør-Varanger Municipality in Finnmark county, Norway . It is located in the town of Kirkenes , just off the European route E06 highway. It is one of the churches for the Sør-Varanger parish which is part of the Varanger prosti ( deanery ) in the Diocese of Nord-Hålogaland . The white, concrete church was built in a long church style in 1959 by the architect Sofus Hougen . The church seats about 275 people.
8-645: In 1857, it was decided that a church should be built on the southern side of the Varangerfjorden . After some discussion about the exact location to build on, planners settled on a site on the Piselvnes peninsula (Pis River headland) at the mouth of the Pasvikelva river where it meets the Bøkfjorden . The parish was named Sydvaranger (meaning South-Varanger), and after the church was built its site
16-472: A traditional long church design, in the form of a basilica, divided longitudinally into three sections by columns and rows, with a raised central peak and tower raised over the choir. As was common to two-thirds of post-war church construction in Norway, reinforced concrete bricks were used as a principal material, along with wood fashioned by modern milling techniques. Interior decoration and furnishings reflect
24-507: A traditional strongly sacred character. The present church building was finally completed in 1959. Varangerfjorden The Varangerfjord (English: Varanger Fjord ; Russian : Варангер-фьорд, Варяжский залив ; Finnish : Varanginvuono ; Northern Sami : Várjavuonna ) is the easternmost fjord in Norway , north of Finland. The fjord is located in Finnmark county between
32-550: The Varanger Peninsula and the mainland of Norway. The fjord flows through the municipalities of Vardø , Vadsø , Nesseby , and Sør-Varanger . The fjord is approximately 100 kilometres (62 mi) long, emptying into the Barents Sea . In a strict sense, it is a false fjord , since it does not have the hallmarks of a fjord carved by glaciers . Its mouth is about 70 kilometres (43 mi) wide, located between
40-473: The town of Vardø in the northwest and the village of Grense Jakobselv in the southeast. The fjord stretches westwards inland past the town of Vadsø to the village of Varangerbotn in Nesseby Municipality . The Kven residents of Varangerfjord are largely descendants of Finnish immigrants who arrived to the area during the 19th century from Finland and northern Sweden . During
48-518: The first half of the 19th century, the possibility of Russia demanding the cession of a stretch of coast along the Varangerfjord was for some time on the European diplomatic agenda, inducing King Oscar I of Sweden and Norway to conclude an alliance (1855) with Britain and France in order to forestall this possibility. A 55,450 ha area comprising the northern coast of the fjord and
56-681: The nearby islands of Hornøya and Reinøya , including intertidal and neritic habitats as well as coastal wetlands and tundra grassland , has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports large numbers of waterbirds , seabirds and waders , either breeding or overwintering . These include lesser white-fronted geese , long-tailed ducks , king eiders , common eiders , Steller's eiders , velvet scoters , red-breasted mergansers , yellow-billed loons , purple sandpipers , black-legged kittiwakes , glaucous gulls , Arctic herring gulls , Atlantic puffins and common murres . This article about
64-434: Was renamed Kirkenes (church headland), from which the present-day town received its name. The first church building was completed in 1862. It stood almost until the end of World War II , when in 1944 it was subjected to heavy bombing and burned to the ground. The old church spire survived, though, and was incorporated into its replacement. Rebuilding took fifteen years. The architectural drawings by Sofus Hougen followed
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