The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1297, but it was not new that year. The first church at Oppdal was a
stave church that was likely built during the 12th century on the same site as the present church. It was located on the Vang farm which is now part of the village of Oppdal, so originally it was often called
Vang Church. The church was dedicated to
St. Edmund. In 1637-1638, the church was repaired and expanded, but just over ten years later, the old church was torn down to make room for a new church on the same site. The new church was
consecrated on 12 March 1651 by Bishop
Erik Bredal. In 1674, a builder named Knud was hired to strengthen the foundation of the young building because the tower above the
nave was too heavy for the walls to hold and the walls were beginning to buckle. Even after the strengthened foundation, the walls were still a little crooked. 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. ==Media gallery==