Østre Gausdal Church

Østre Gausdal Church is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Gausdal Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in Prestgarden, about northwest of the village of Segalstad bru. It is the church for the Østre Gausdal parish which is part of the Sør-Gudbrandsdal prosti in the Diocese of Hamar. The white, stone church was built in a long church design around the year 1250 using plans drawn up by an unknown architect. The church seats about 280 people.

History

The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1333, but the church was not built that year. The church in Østre Gausdal was built on the Reidvoll farm around the year 1250. Originally, it was called Gausdal Church. It was originally a long church with a rectangular nave and a narrower choir with a lower roof line and a sacristy on the north side of the choir. The church was built out of stone which was quite uncommon in Oppland at that time. For centuries, this church was the church for the prestegjeld of Gausdal.
During the Northern Seven Years' War in 1567, the church was taken by the Swedish army and for a time, the building was used as a stable, and then it was later burned. Some of the interior furnishings were saved. Together with more than 300 other parish churches across Norway, it was a polling station for elections to the 1814 Norwegian Constituent Assembly which wrote the Constitution of Norway. This was Norway's first national elections. Each church parish was a constituency that elected people called "electors" who later met together in each county to elect the representatives for the assembly that was to meet at Eidsvoll Manor later that year.