Fredriksvern Church is located in the town of Stavern in the municipality of Larvik. In 1748, it was decided to build a shipyard and fleet base of the Royal Navy of Denmark-Norway in what is now the town of Stavern. The construction of the shipyard and naval base began in 1750. Soon after, plans were made to build a church for the local naval garrison. The church was designed by Michael Johan Herbst, who was commandant of the new Fredriksvern naval base, and the church was built in 1753-1756. The new church was consecrated on 31 March 1756, the birthday of King Frederik V, after whom the facility is named.
The building has a cruciform design and it is built of plastered brick and it has a hipped roof. A sacristy was built in 1760. The church is said to be a masterpiece of Rococo design in Norway. Despite this, it has a couple of quirks that were supposedly necessary to secure funding. As part of the naval base, it was supposed to be able to serve as a multipurpose building with grain storage in the attic (hence the visible air ducts in the roof). It was also supposed to function as a temporary leprosarium when needed, thus the pews had fold-down backs to become make-shift beds when needed. On the outside, it has a clockwork that was installed one year after its consecration. There were originally several clocks, but there were problems with the drive mechanism, so only the clock above the main entrance has been preserved.
The church is located just outside the naval base fortifications and it is surrounded by the cemetery, which is divided into several fields. Until 1799, the cemetery was reserved for the military and followed a strict order of rank, while civilians were buried at the nearby Tanum Church cemetery. In 1986, the Torsrød cemetery was built about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) to the west of the church, on the edge of town, to serve as the new cemetery for the church since the old cemetery was too small.
References:The Pilgrimage Church of Wies (Wieskirche) is an oval rococo church, designed in the late 1740s by Dominikus Zimmermann. It is located in the foothills of the Alps in the municipality of Steingaden.
The sanctuary of Wies is a pilgrimage church extraordinarily well-preserved in the beautiful setting of an Alpine valley, and is a perfect masterpiece of Rococo art and creative genius, as well as an exceptional testimony to a civilization that has disappeared.
The hamlet of Wies, in 1738, is said to have been the setting of a miracle in which tears were seen on a simple wooden figure of Christ mounted on a column that was no longer venerated by the Premonstratensian monks of the Abbey. A wooden chapel constructed in the fields housed the miraculous statue for some time. However, pilgrims from Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and even Italy became so numerous that the Abbot of the Premonstratensians of Steingaden decided to construct a splendid sanctuary.