Above the entrance hangs the inscription Til Guds Ære og Bergstadens Ziir: to God's glory and the mining town's beauty. The old church had become too small for the growing population, and in 1779 it was torn down. Peter Leonard Neumann from Trondheim designed the replacement, a stone church built from local slate and consecrated in 1784. It seats 1,600, making it the fifth largest in the Church of Norway, a staggering size for a remote mining town of a few thousand people.
The copper works paid the entire bill: 23,000 Riksdaler. For context, that was 425 miners' annual salaries combined. Inside, the seating arrangement reflected the rigid social hierarchy: the mining director and his family sat in the best pews, while ordinary miners were packed in wherever space allowed. The church has two organs; the oldest dates from 1700 and was transferred from the previous building. A major restoration in 2010-2011 brought the building back to condition, with a new organ inaugurated on Christmas Eve 2011.
The copper works paid the entire bill: 23,000 Riksdaler. For context, that was 425 miners' annual salaries combined. Inside, the seating arrangement reflected the rigid social hierarchy: the mining director and his family sat in the best pews, while ordinary miners were packed in wherever space allowed. The church has two organs; the oldest dates from 1700 and was transferred from the previous building. A major restoration in 2010-2011 brought the building back to condition, with a new organ inaugurated on Christmas Eve 2011.
