 efore the year 1500 there were more churches in the Holla area than today. The parish of Fen, today part of Holla parish had it's own stave church. Fen parish bordered the parishes of Holla and Helgen at that time and was the area between `Namlause' (without name) stream and the stream at Søvedalen. This latter was known at that time as `Sork'.
 he church was located at Søndre Fen surrounded by its churchyard. Old graves have been subsequently found in the area confirming this.
 he church was dedicated to St.Michael “in profesto ad vinaula Petri” on 31st July, year unknown. Some people think it must have been built before Holla old church as it seems unlikely that a small stave church would have been built only 2 kilometres from the larger stone building, but there is no physical evidence to confirm this. It could well be that there was felt to be a binding duty by the owner of the large farm in Fen to build a church there.
 here is an interesting document from 1183 still in existence which describes an old barn which was dismantled and removed without permission from Holla farm to a place in Fen parish. Torguils, the priest in Holla wished to have the perpetrator excommunicated for what he had done. It is reported that the excommunication occurred in Fen parish and by implication in the text in Fen church itself.
 n 1732 the then priest of Holla describes his parish as not having undergone any change “with the exception that there had previously stood a church and farm at Søndre Fen”. Older parishioners at that time told him that the main farm building at Fen had burnt down 20 years previously and that some of the beams in the loft had come from the old stave church. This building itself must have been old at the time so it seems likely that Fen church had been pulled down in about 1500. Church furnishings and property were split between the parishes of Helgen and Holla.
Taken from Holla II:
“Teaching, church and school management”
by Simon Ytterbøe
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( Translation from Norwegian by Christopher John Denton, - musical director of Holla parrish. )
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