This church is situated on a hill overlooking Mjøsa lake.  It is one of the older churches in Norway having been built in 1250.  While initially a Catholic church during the Reformation it was converted to Lutheran.  Church service are still held here regularly and now a service is held for farm workers who may be Catholic. The Gunhild's marker is along the St. Olaf's Way on the Ringnes farm. 


This church is on St Olaf's Way primarily because St. Olaf or Olaf II Haraldsson (995-1030) frequented the area.  He attended the wedding of his half sister Gunhild on the Ringnes farm nearby.  

Even before this church was built there may have been a stave church at this location.  As a Wikipedia article suggested, "Archaeological excavations in 1986 conducted under the direction of archeologist Dagfinn Skre, revealed that there has been an older stone church on site. It was also revealed even older graves, suggesting that there has been a church space even before the church was built." [no.wikipedia.org - Norwegian]


Many relatives over the generations have been buried here. You will not find any markers here that go back much further than 1940.  Due to the limitation of space the common practice is to remove markers from in which the maintenance is not paid but also any grave that is more than fifty years old the remains will be removed, cremated and the plot used again. 

This partial map of Løten area comes from 1862
several farms on which our relatives have lived  back to the 1500's
[Norgeskart historical map - Amtskart]