Hof Church, church in Åsnes Municipality, Norway
Hof Church is a brick Lutheran church in the village of Hof, Åsnes Municipality, set in a quiet rural area near the Glomma river. The building has a cross-shaped layout with a tall steeple, pale brick walls, a dark tile roof, and large windows that fill the interior with natural light.
A wooden stave church stood on this site from the early 1200s and was later rebuilt as a cruciform church before being dismantled in 1858. The current brick building was finished in 1860 to a design by Christian Heinrich Grosch, one of Norway’s most active church architects of that period.
As a gathering place for worship, weddings, and village celebrations, the church keeps local traditions visible through its simple wooden pews and unadorned altar. The churchyard’s old gravestones mark family names that still appear in nearby farms, making a walk there feel like reading a local family record.
The church stands at Beitnesgrenda 15 in the small village of Arneberg, reached by local roads through farmland and scattered trees. Visitors can walk around the churchyard freely, and the interior is often open for quiet visits outside of service times.
In 1814, the previous wooden church on this spot served as a polling station for Norway’s first national elections, making it a direct link to the country’s early democratic history. The river Glomma also shifted its course in the 1400s, moving the church from the east bank to the west bank without any building being relocated.
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