Tromsdalen Church, Tromso, Norway

Architect	Eggen Architects
Date Built	Dedicated 1965
Location	Jan Inge Hovig
Description
The Tromsdalen church is known as Ishavskatedralen or the Arctic Cathedral. It occupies a prominent position overlooking Tromso Sound. The building is composed of 11 aluminium coated concrete panels that are symultaneously its walls and roof. I visited the church for a midnight concert when both inside and out the lighting was subdued, hence the poor quality of the images. The front of the building has a glass facade with a prominent cross. Spaces between the panel;s allow light into the building. The image below was taken by Thomas Veith and was placed in Wikipedia as a public domain file. It shows the eastern wall of the chuch that is made up of a spectaculart stained glass window created by Victor Sparre. The gonorway.no website says of the window that it is, "...23 metres high and covers an area of 140 square metres. 11 tons of glass were used to finish the window. Each glass element comprises of 86 rectangular sections that form a complete whole." "The altar, christening font and pulpit are made from light oak, by Målselv-Møbler and Thorheim Snekkerverksted. The communion rail and pews are covered in beige leather. The bridal chair and most of the churches other decorations are made by The Norwegian Handicraft Association." "The chandeliers are made in Oslo of Czechoslovakian crystal. The design is by the architect Hovig. The chandeliers comprise of many prisms, that represent hanging ice formations. In every chandelier there are 126 lights. A special technique used means that the light given from each chandelier gives a very special colour effect, from the reflection of each crystal." "The organ was delivered by Vestliandske Orgelverksted, Hareid (it) has 22 voices and 124 keys. The organ is situated by the west gallery. Organist Helmer Telnes, from Troms¿ served as consultant and designer. The organ project was supervised by architect Hovig."