The stone church at Evenestangen

The stone church stands at the far end of Evenestangen by the Ofotfjord, east of the beach. The 5.5 meter high granite sculpture was made by the Danish artist Bjørn Nørgaard and was opened in 1995 as Evenes municipality's contribution to Artscape Nordland. The work has its formal starting point in church and temple architecture. The shape is reminiscent of Norwegian stave churches from the early Middle Ages, but also refers to sacred architecture from other cultures. Instead of wood, the artist has used granite from Lødingen, and the sculpture is oriented east-west in the traditional way in a church context. The stone church is not a church, but a picture of a church or a temple. You can enter the room the sculpture forms, surrounded by stone walls with drawings on the inside. The artist himself has explained that the figures on the south wall live in the house, while the figures on the north wall are homeless, troubled souls. In this way, the work makes room for a quiet moment and its own stories. Evenestangen also contains a number of cultural monuments from World War II, linked to the coastal battery that the Germans built here. An overview of the war memorials can be found on the information board at the parking lot, and the memorials are numbered and signposted in the terrain uphill along Evenestangen. Here, art, local history and outdoor life meet in an open fjord landscape close to the E10.