It is one of the churches for the Etne parish which is part of the Sunnhordland prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Bjørgvin.

[1][2] The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1288, but it was built some time before that.

In 1673, the church was badly damaged in a storm, and since it had been in poor condition for some time, it was decided to tear down the building.

[3][4][5][6] Instead of rebuilding, the parish purchased another church that was moved here from Sandviken in Bergen.

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.