(1820) Before this church was constructed, there was a wooden church on the same site around the year 1024. That church is assumed to have been built by
Olav Trygvason, and it is possible that the present stone church is built around this church originally. The church was mentioned by the historian
Snorri Sturluson in chapter 19 of his book
Soga om Olav den heilage. This church has been a landmark for seafarers passing through the
Karmsundet strait for 750 years. King
Håkon IV Håkonsson gave permission to replace the old wooden church with a stone church around the year 1250. The new stone building was not completed until nearly 1320, and was then the fourth largest in the country. The church was dedicated to
St. Olav and received the status of "Royal Chapel". During the same period it became one of four "college-churches" (it appointed a council of theological and juridical scholars). Probably there was a group of four scholars and teachers in law and theology. The stone church had a rectangular
nave and narrower, rectangular
chancel as well as a large tower to the west. Decay started with the
Black Death in 1349–1351. This disaster was followed by 400 years of
Danish supremacy. In this period, the church gradually fell into a state of ruin due to lack of repair. By 1599, the
quire was the only room left in the old church that was still usable. During the 17th century, a little wooden church was built inside the stone walls and this was used for more than 200 years. Together with more than 300 other parish churches across Norway, it was a polling station for elections to the 1814
Norwegian Constituent Assembly which wrote the
Constitution of Norway. This was Norway's first national elections. Each
church parish was a constituency that elected people called "electors" who later met together in each county to elect the representatives for the assembly that was to meet at
Eidsvoll Manor later that year. The first restoration work began in 1830. The old steeple was demolished, the
nave was rebuilt, and a small wooden steeple was erected on the top. In the 1920s the church was once again restored in a manner which was more similar to its original architecture. A new stone steeple was built and the interior renewed. The altar,
baptismal font, and
pulpit were designed in the 1920s by Norwegian functionalist architect Eivind Moestue (1893-1977). The baptismal basin dates back to the 16th century. ==Design and architecture==