The Ministry of Children and Family Affairs has commissioned the National Heritage Board to draw up a proposal for a conservation program for churches. "We are proposing extensive work to restore medieval churches, churches after the Reformation in 1537 and churches from after 1850," says the National Heritage Board's Hanna Geiran.
- Churches are among the country's most important cultural monuments, and we know that the condition of some of our churches is poor," says Kjersti Toppe, Minister of Religious Affairs and Life Stance. "With amounts in the order of SEK 10 billion in connection with the sharing of the values in the Information Society Fund, the government, in collaboration with the municipalities, will prioritize repairing the churches in the years to come.
The assignment is in two parts. The first delivery is about the capacity of the craft market and the administration, overall proposals for strategy and content of the conservation program. The entire report must be completed before Christmas, and the Directorate for Cultural Heritage will carry out the assignment in close collaboration with the Church of Norway and the Employer Organization for Church Enterprises.
- The ministry will now consider the proposals put forward by the Directorate for Cultural Heritage," Toppe continues, "We want the effects of this initiative to be long-term. "Most of the churches are in active use for worship and church services for the local population across the country. This means that the programs will contribute to the restoration of church buildings, predictability for owners, craftsmanship expertise and capacity development, knowledge development and strengthened commitment among owners and users. A major joint effort is required to take care of the churches as the community's cultural heritage throughout the country.
One strategy and three programs
The Directorate for Cultural Heritage proposes to create one overall conservation strategy with three parallel programs for medieval churches, churches built after the Reformation in 1537 and churches built after 1850. Each program has common focus areas that cut across the programs for measures such as conservation, knowledge and expertise, experience and communication, and engagement and participation.
The market for traditional craftsmen
The analysis that has been carried out calculates the volume of today's market for traditional craftsmanship at NOK 1,000 million per year. This sum applies to both churches and other types of buildings.
-"Studies show that parts of the market are under pressure," says Geiran, "which means that an important part of the assignment will be to build up capacity and expertise in traditional crafts in the years to come. The proposed strategy and program addresses this challenge with a separate focus area for knowledge and expertise.
In the assignment, the Directorate for Cultural Heritage was asked to assess the capacity of the market and administration in the event of an increase of NOK 100, 300 and 600 million per year respectively. The analysis shows that it is initially possible to handle NOK 100 million per year, and then it is possible to scale up the size of the grant. The size of the grants must be adapted to the capacity of the owner, the craft market and the administration. The aim is to increase this capacity as quickly as possible so that a larger volume of grants can be handled in a few years.
Church interiors and churches owned by others than the Church of Norway
The Directorate for Cultural Heritage was also asked to consider whether the conservation program should include churches outside the Church of Norway. "We recommend that a selection of 31 churches (see the report's appendix for which churches this applies to) be included in the conservation program," says Geiran. "This includes several stave churches and stone churches in private ownership.
The National Heritage Board recommends that the interiors of the churches should also be included in the conservation program. "The interiors contain inalienable parts of the individual church's cultural and historical values," says Geiran, "and the interiors are an important part of the churches' utility value.
The Directorate for Cultural Heritage will continue its work on developing a conservation program for culturally and historically important church buildings in collaboration with the Church of Norway. An overall recommendation will be submitted to the Ministry of Children and Family Affairs on December 1, 2022.
