Øyestad

Øyestad lies along the lower Nidelva west of Arendal, in a district of farms and wooded slopes near the southern Norwegian coast. Its stone church was probably built in the thirteenth century, with a rectangular nave and finely worked portals. A timber chancel and sacristy were added later, probably in the seventeenth century. The church served communities spread along the river, whose waters connected the inland countryside with the coast and its maritime routes.