Sunnylven Church

Historie

Sunnylven Church is a parish church in Stranda Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located in the village of Hellesylt, at the end of the Sunnylvsfjorden. The church is part of the Sunnylven parish in the Austre Sunnmøre deanery in the Diocese of Møre. There has been a church here in Hellesylt dating back to at least 1150.The church is a log construction from 1859 with a total of 400 seats. Captain Ludolph Rolfsen of Stryn Municipality designed the church based on drawings by Hans Ditlev Franciscus Linstow. Rolfsen also headed the construction of Hornindal Church and Nedstryn Church, both in the Nordfjord region to the south of here, and these churches share many features. Shipbuilder Nils A. Liaaen of Sunnylven designed Sylte Church in 1862 and was probably inspired by this church at Hellesylt.Playwright Henrik Ibsen visited Hellesylt in the summer of 1862 when this church was new and Sunnylven with Geiranger had just been named a separate prestegjeld . The municipality of Sunnylven and the local priest, Rev. Ole Olsen Barman, was an inspiration for Ibsen's dramatic poem Brand.