Norwegian Church Arts Centre, Cardiff Bay

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Photo of Norwegian Church in original locationCardiff’s Norwegian Church was founded by Herman Lunde of Oslo in 1866 and created this building in 1868. Originally clad in corrugated iron, it stood between the East and West Docks, on land donated by the Marquis of Bute. The gallery and bell tower were added in 1885. It is the oldest church built overseas by the Norwegian Seamen’s Mission to survive intact.

Scandinavian seamen worked on ships which came to Cardiff to carry away Welsh coal. The church, designed like a village church back home, was a haven in the bustling port where the seamen could meet, worship, read periodicals from their native countries or write letters home. After the decline of the coal trade, the Seamen’s Mission left the church in 1959 and it was run by the local Norwegian community and World Lutheran Foundation until 1974. It then fell into decay.

In 1987 it was dismantled by the Norwegian Church Preservation Trust, which also kept many of the interior fittings. The Trust raised £250,000 in Wales and Norway to re-erect the church on its present site, where Princess Martha Louise of Norway opened it to the public in 1992.

Photo of Norwegian Church Arts CentreThe trust’s first president was the children’s author Roald Dahl, who was christened in the church in 1916. His father Harald, who worshipped at the church, hailed from Oslo and had co-founded the Aadnesen & Dahl shipbroking company in Cardiff in 1880. The company also had offices in Swansea, Port Talbot and Newport.

Roald attended Llandaff Cathedral School. A plaque in the nearby High Street marks the former shop where he bought sweets but landed in trouble for playing a trick on the elderly shopkeeper. Roald died in 1990. Every year his birthday is celebrated at the church with a party for local children.

The church reopened in May 2011 after further renovation, funded by the Landfill Communities Fund and with assistance from Hordaland County Council, Norway.

The Norwegian Church Arts Centre is now run by a charity and is a venue for performance and events, and home to the Welsh Norwegian Society who use the building to meet every month. The Norsk Cafe serves locally sourced and Nordic-influenced food and drink, including waffles and lapskaus (cawl).

Postcode: CF10 4PA    View Location Map

Website of the Norwegian Church Arts Centre

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