Eid Church (Kvinnherad)

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Eid Church (Eid kyrkje) is a parish church of the Church of Norway, located in the village of Eidsvik in Kvinnherad Municipality, Vestland county. It is one of two churches in the Fjelberg og Eid parish, within the Sunnhordland prosti of the Bjørgvin Diocese. The white wooden long church was built in 1824 and can seat about 180 people.

History
- A church has stood here since the Middle Ages because Halsnøy Abbey was nearby. The earliest records mention the church in 1337, but it existed earlier.
- The first church was a wooden stave church built in the 13th century about 50 meters west of the present building.
- In 1618 the chancel was rebuilt. In 1668 the stave church was torn down and replaced with a timber-framed cruciform church on the same site.
- Repairs were made in 1696, and around 1700 the choir ceiling was vaulted. In 1722 a new tower was added to the west end.
- In 1724, the local parish priest Erland Michelsen bought the church from the Crown during a royal auction to pay war debts; it later came under local parish ownership.
- In 1824 a new wooden long church was built about 50 meters east of the old church and consecrated by Bishop Jacob Neumann. The old church was torn down.
- A renovation from 1891 to 1893 added a porch, large windows on both sides of the nave, a north-wall gallery, and raised the choir floor.
- The interior was restored and repainted in 1952–1953.

Today, Eid Church remains an active parish church with a rich history dating back to medieval times.