Gløshaug Church


Gløshaug Church is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Grong municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is located in the village of Gartland. It is an annex church for the Harran parish which is part of the Namdal prosti in the Diocese of Nidaros. The red, wooden stave church was built in a long church style in 1689. The church seats about 100 people.

History

The site of Gløshaug Church has been used all the way back to around 1160. It originally was a St. Olaf church according to Grankvist. A manuscript from 1597 called the church "Olafshougs Kirke i Hærø fierding", meaning St. Olaf's Church of Harran. St. Olaf is the patron saint of Norway. The first church building on this site was built around 1170, and it was restored in 1433 and 1510. In 1689, the old church was replaced by a new stave church, which still stands today. St. Olaf's Church was for centuries the main church for all of the people that lived in the upper inner part of Namdalen.
In the 1800s and 1900s, several Englishmen owned houses along the river at Gartland, where they lived during their stay in Grong. One was Thomas Merthyr Guest, a man of considerable wealth. He bought two Gartland farms and in 1873, he bought the old Gløshaug Church. Grong municipality wanted to tear down the old church and build a new church for Harran, but instead Mr. Guest restored it. The new Harran Church was put up at Fiskum in the village of Harran. Mr. Guest's widow sold the church in 1908 to a local farmer who in turn in 1910 gave the church to the municipality.