Molde Cathedral


Molde Cathedral is a cathedral of the Church of Norway in Molde Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located in the town of Molde. It is the church for the Molde parish as well as the seat of the Molde domprosti and the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Møre. The white, brick church was built in a long church style in 1957 by the architect Finn Bryn. The church seats about 700 people.
This building was built to replace an earlier church here, and it is the third church to be located on the same site. It became a cathedral in 1983 when the Diocese of Møre was created.

Structure

The cathedral is a double-nave basilica that has a free-standing bell tower next to the main building. The cathedral seats about 1000 people. The church building is shaped like a long "basilica", but with a central aisle and another on the north side, but not on the south side. The entrance consists of two copper-clad doors surrounded by fields in natural concrete under a gable roof. The square campanile is at the church's southwest corner, and it is approximately tall. Behind the church's main entry doors to the west, there is a spacious rectangular foyer which leads into the sanctuary.

History

This is the third church to stand in the town of Molde. The first, cruciform in plan, was built in approximately 1661. When it burned down, a wooden neo-Gothic dragestil church was built to replace it in 1887. This wooden church burned down during the bombing of the town center on 29 April 1940. After the war was over, planning for a new church began, to designs by architect Finn Bryn, who was awarded the contract after winning a competition for a new church in Molde in 1948. Total costs came in about. The church was completed and consecrated on 8 December 1957.

Bishops

The cathedral has been the seat of the Bishop of the Diocese of Møre since its establishment in 1983. The following Bishops have served in this cathedral: