It has been a few years now since I attended the wedding of my nephew Jørgen and his sweetheart Jeanette.  The wedding took place on the island of Nøtterøy in southern Norway, and we were lucky to get a beautiful and sunny day after a long period of cold and rain.

The Nøtterøy stone church was originally built around 1100 in the Romanesque style, but the current structure was completed in 1839 and then later in 1883. In 1985, King Olav V of Norway was present to celebrate the  church’s 800 year anniversary. The church was originally consecrated to the Virgin Mary, and this is shown by writings of Bishop Eystein (1398) and in an even older letter from Pope John XXII in 1323.

In this letter, which I this is the oldest written record about the church, Pope John referred to the church in Latin as: “ecclesia they Niotaroy … beatissime virgins Maria constructed the ” or  “Nøtterøy church … built in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary “. In other words, this wedding took place in a very old church.

So with my parents and my two oldest children Rose and Ben, we arrived at the church and I was introduced to a whole new family from Jeanette’s side of the family.