Sør-Fron Church is a parish church at Hundorp in Sør-Fron municipality, Norway. Because of size and central location in Gudbrandsdalen it has been nicknamed Gudbrandsdalen cathedral. The church has an octagonal plan and is laid out in a colorful baroque style. It is one of the few masonry rural churches from the 1700s in Norway, and its style and design was unusual or unique in Norway at the time of construction. The church is described as the greatest building of the 1700s in Gudbrandsdalen, Muri describes the interior as holistic. and Hosar believes the building to be imposing and very sophisticated for its time. Harry Fett described the building as "graceful" and believed that Røros Church as well as local wood carving traditions influenced the design. According to Hosar, Sør-Fron church left few traces on subsequent church construction in Gudbrandsdalen, possibly because a period of extensive church building just came to an end. Sør-Fron Church served as a model for Grytten Church in Rauma, the latter constructed in timber. Grytten Church is the only directly modeled on Sør-Fron Church, this most clearly seen in the interior. Unlike Sør-Fron church, Grytten church is a regular octagon and the roof is straight without the small jump that is characteristic for Sør-Fron church.
Design
The church has an octagonal plan and is laid out in late baroque style with details in Louis XVI style. It was unusually colorful for its time. While the great new churches of the time offered specific elements, there are no Norwegian models from the period and parallels can be found in Danish or Dutch church architecture, such as Frederiksberg Church. Very similar are the churches in Brande-Hörnerkirchen in Schleswig-Holstein from 1752 and in Niendorf, Hamburg from 1767. Hosar also suggests that Sant'Andrea al Quirinale by Bernini is the original inspiration. The angles of the octagon plan are not equal, so that the octagon has a somewhat elongated shape - the larger angels are 145° while the smaller are 125°. Because of the elongated octagon and sloping ground the church gives a different impression from various perspectives. Viewed directly towards the main entrance the church appears wide, while viewed towards the short walls it appears slender with a steep roof, from other perspectives it may appear warped. The altar points in the North-Eastern direction, rather than traditional Eastern - probably because of the terrain. A gallery runs around most of the interior. The church has a central tower resting on the roof ridge. Pulpit and altar are located on one of the longer walls and the building is characterized as a ″broad church″. The pulpit is integrated in the altar according to the ideals of the reformation and in the same style as Røros Church and Vang Church - these are also two major masonry octagonal churches. The pulpit was made in 1703 for an older church. Walls and foundation were built from ordinary hard rock found in the ground or in quarries nearby. These naturally rectangular blocks were joined by lime mortar mixed with clay, the lime mortar and clay mix was also used for plaster. Decorative details are made from soapstone. The royal monogram C7 and the word IEHOVA can be seen on the exterior. There are four doors and twelve windows. Between main walls there are spans of 19 and 26 meters. The long span and the hip roof required a complex web of large wooden beams. Four columns in the nave supports the roof construction.
History
The masonry construction was completed in 1792 and replaced a medieval stave church. Construction began i 1786 and was delayed by the Storofsen flood. Røros church was completed in 1784 by Svend Aspås who was soon asked to help out at Sør-Fron. Master builder Svend Aspås used his experience and skills in constructing tall masonry walls and arches to complete the church. Aspås had previously been engaged in the construction of the Røros Church, as well as masonry work for roads and dams for the Røros Copper Works. There are few or no Norwegian parallels and Sør-Fron church displays features found in German Protestant churches from that period. In the local tradition, wood was the preferred material and log construction was the dominant technique. Virtually all rural churches at the time were wooden, more than 90 % of all churches built in Norway until 1850 were wooden. Masonry churches were more costly and labour-intensive than traditional wood construction. A stone church was at the time estimated as 50-100 % more costly to build than a wooden church. It remains unclear why such an unusual and expensive church was erected in Sør-Fron. Hosar and Skrondal propose possible explanations. Sør-Fron was a rich, relatively populous and central community in Gudbrandsdalen, and hosted regional officials as well as the garrison for Gudbrandsdalen including officers of Danish and German descent. The self-confidence of the leading men of Fron at the time may be part of the explanation, according to Hosar and Skrondal. Hosar also mentions that troops from Fron did military service in Schleswig-Holstein, then under the Danish crown, and may have observed the many new churches being constructed in Holstein at the time. While wood was the dominant building material, locals had already some experience in masonry construction, notably livestock buildings.
