Søndre Enningdalen Church

Enningdalen, 2.5 miles south of Halden, is the only valley in the country that borders Sweden on three sides. Here is a small, beautiful wooden church. Søndre Enningdalen church is a long-timbered church in white-painted wood that was completed in 1956. 

But did you know that this is the third church that has been here? In the Middle Ages, there was a stave church on the site, and in 1686 a new church was built in timber. This was demolished in 1795, and until 1956 there was no church on the site.  Although the stave church was demolished in the late 1600s, there are still traces of it. 

A crucifix was recovered in the 1960s and the old altar stone is still in the cemetery. It is a large flat stone, with holes in the middle, which is called the "reliquary hide". It was used to store an object associated with a holy person, such as a splinter from Jesus' cross or a lock of St. Olav's hair.