The earliest existing historical records of the Svarstad church date back to the year 1359, but the church was not built that year. It is said that the first church was a wooden stave church and it may have been built around the year 1200. That church was dedicated to St. Olav. Two of the decorative portal planks from this church have been preserved at the Museum of Cultural History, Oslo for a long time. The old church had a fire in 1392 and it was either repaired or completely rebuilt in 1395. By the end of the 17th century, the church was considered to be far too small for the parish. In 1651, a builder was hired to enlarge the church, but it was ultimately decided to build a new building on the same site. The new church was consecrated in 1657. The new building was a wooden long church with a rectangular nave and a smaller chancel on the east end. The church was owned by the Count of Larvik until it was sold to the congregation in 1764.
In 1814, this church served as an election church (valgkirke). Together with more than 300 other parish churches across Norway, it was a polling station for elections to the 1814 Norwegian Constituent Assembly which wrote the Constitution of Norway. This was Norway's first national elections. Each church parish was a constituency that elected people called 'electors' who later met together in each county to elect the representatives for the assembly that was to meet in Eidsvoll later that year.
In 1866-1867, the church was renovated. The whole roof was rebuilt and a new tower on the nave roof was built. This renovation also included the construction of a small sacristy built on the east end of the chancel and a church porch on the west end of the nave.
References:The Temple of Edfu is one of the best preserved ancient shrines in Egypt. It was built in the Ptolemaic Kingdom between 237 and 57 BC.
Edfu was one of several temples built during the Ptolemaic Kingdom, including the Dendera Temple complex, Esna, the Temple of Kom Ombo, and Philae. Its size reflects the relative prosperity of the time. The present temple initially consisted of a pillared hall, two transverse halls, and a barque sanctuary surrounded by chapels. The building was started during the reign of Ptolemy III Euergetes and completed in 57 BC under Ptolemy XII Auletes. It was built on the site of an earlier, smaller temple also dedicated to Horus, although the previous structure was oriented east–west rather than north–south as in the present site.