It is the church for the Fortun parish which is part of the Sogn prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Bjørgvin.

In 1666, the choir was torn down and replaced with a larger timber-framed room, the same width as the nave.

Eventually, it was torn down, but the consul Fredrik Georg Gade bought most of the building materials and moved them to Fantoft in Bergen in 1883.

On 6 June 1992, the centuries-old church was destroyed in an arson fire.

Soon after, in 1997, a replica building was completed on the same site, but virtually all of the old parts from the original stave church in Fortun had been lost.