Norwegian Stave Churches

As part of my recent trip to Norway last August I was fortunate enough to visit a number of stave churches. I'm not going to provide a lot of background information here; you can find that on a number of other websites.  So for now we'll just say that stave churches are medieval wooden church buildings, and though there used to be 1300+ scattered around Norway, there are only about 30 that remain today.

Any good blog needs a map, so here's a map of the remaining stave churches:

View Stavkirker in a larger map
The stave churches I'll be discussing in this post (ie: the ones I visited) are:

• Hopperstad
• Øye
• Hegge
• Høre
• Lomen
• Reinli 
• Gol

Hopperstad
My group was driving from Bergen to Vang when we saw our first stave church.  We were on a pretty tight schedule, so we didn't get to go inside.  I quickly purchased a book about stave churches, took a few photos, and hopped back in the van.  Onward.







Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopperstad_Stave_Church
Year Built: 1131 (Source: stavkirke.info)

Øye
Before setting out on our activities of the day, we decided to stop by the Øye stave church.  Located just outside of Vang, where we stayed at the Bøflaten campground for a few days, I was hoping I'd finally have the opportunity to go inside one of these awesome structures.  Unfortunately, the Øye church was closed that day, so we could only admire it from outside.  Still impressive!





Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Øye_stave_church
Year Built: Around 1200 (Source: stavkirke.info)

Hegge
The stave church tour continued for part of our group (the injured few), while the rest of the group hiked Besseggen.  On our self-guided tour (ie: geography nerds in a van with a map!) we found the Hegge stave church, which features a carved figure that resembled the Norse god Odin!  Hegge is just one of many stave churches which incorporates pagan and Christian elements into a single building.  We struck out again; Hegge was not open for tours on the day of our visit.



Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hegge_stave_church
Year Built: 1216 (Source: stavkirke.info)

Høre
Next up on the self-guided tour was the Høre stave church.  The next day, with the entire group present, we returned to Høre.  I gave a short lecture to my classmates on stave churches, their history, their preservation, and their geography in the cemetery beside the church.  There is no better place to learn about and discuss such structures.









Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Høre_stave_church
Year Built: 1180 (Source: stavkirke.info)

Lomen
The last stave church in the area was Lomen.  The road to the church was a little tricky to find.  A few wrong turns and iffy multi-point-turns on narrow roads and private driveways, and we figured out where to park.  The church had beautiful carved portals around the entrances.





Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lomen_stave_church
Year Built: 1192 (Source: stavkirke.info)

Reinli
FINALLY, a stave church we can tour!!  Our guide was an older Norwegian woman, who shared some of the church's history with us.  There is an old manual organ from the 1800s, and our guide actually let two people from our group play it!  Then she proceeded to sing us an old Norwegian folk song, a cappella, so we could hear the acoustics of the building.  Incredible!  Back at the church's office/store she let us hold the church's original key from the year 1023.  A replica is used to open the church today.











Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinli_Stave_Church
Year Built: 1326 (Source: stavkirke.info)

Gol
Gol was much less impressive after our tour of Reinli.  There were no awesome Norwegian ladies singing folk songs to us at Gol, and there were TONS of tourists.  I find it interesting that the Gol stave church was moved from its original location to the Norsk Folkemuseum / Norwegian Museum of Cultural History in the late 1800s, after its original village replaced it with a more modern church, and the King purchased it with the intent of preserving it.  Since the church is in a museum, rather than a historic building being preserved within a small community, I felt more comfortable taking interior photographs.  I did take photos in the Reinli stave church, but I was a little uncomfortable doing so.  Anyway, here are my photos from Gol:









Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gol_Stave_Church
Year Built: 1216 (Source: stavkirke.info)


Odds and Ends

The UNESCO site references 1300+ stave churches that have been "indexed".  I'd love to map the locations of former stave churches, but I can't find much information on the buildings or their locations.  When UNESCO says "indexed", I think they may be referring to sites mentioned in a collection of sources (folk stories, old literature, etc), rather than an actual list that someone has compiled of these sources.

As we visited each stave church, I searched for the oldest headstone I could find.  I was hoping I'd find something from the 1300s, but the oldest headstones were from the mid- or early-1800s.  What's the deal?! Apparently, Norway lets you have your cemetery plot for free for 20 years.  Someone (family, estate, friend, organization) needs to sponsor it after the 20 years are up, or else they'll reuse it for someone more recently dead.  While it  may be a creepy thought, this article brings a lot more creepy thoughts to mind: Grave Problem, Nothing is Rotting in the State of Norway.