The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1374, but the church was likely built around 1100. The Romanesque stone building was originally built as a rectangular nave with a narrower, rectangular choir. In 1753, the old choir was torn down and two new timber-framed wings were added, along with a new choir, giving the building a cruciform design. The architect Lars Albretsen Øvernes led this renovation.[3][4]
In 1814, this church served as an election church (Norwegian: valgkirke).[5] 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 in Eidsvoll later that year.[5][6]
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