Norway Road Trip Stop 2: Ringebu stavkirke - a Viking church?? | Adventure Every Day
Travel around Norway long enough and you’re bound to run into a crazy wooden structure with Viking-like décor on it. It’s obviously a church, but what the heck are these things?
This is something I’ve been wondering about since I first learned the word stavkirke (stave church - pronounced sort of like stahv-sheerk-uh) two years ago. How are these defined, and where did they come from?
When we left Lillehammer, the subject of yesterday's post, I saw a stavkirke sign along the side of the road, so we had to make a quick unplanned side trip - I knew my mom would enjoy seeing this.
Hvor ligger den?
As mentioned above, the Ringebu stavkirke was the first stop after leaving Lillehammer, so it is located just a bit further north off of E6:
What is a stavkirke?
Stave churches are medieval, wooden, Christian churches that were once a common sight around northwestern Europe. Nowadays, almost all of the remaining stave churches are located in Norway - 28 of them in all here. Most of these were originally built from about 1150-1350.
These are not your typical wooden structures. They feature elaborate designs, often resembling what you might associate with Viking ships. Indeed, although they were Christian buildings - not Viking, some themes of animals and dragons are believed to have stemmed from Norway's Viking past.
The fact that they used wood instead of stone also stems undoubtedly from Viking culture as well, since the Vikings were so skilled in building wooden ships and homes.
What defines the structure as a stavkirke is the way the frame is assembled. They consist of large vertical posts, which were called stafr in Old Norse and stav in modern Norwegian. Horizontal cross beams sit atop the posts to create the interior space within the structure.
The walls are also made of timber and consist of vertical planks standing on sills, called stave walls.
Although the churches vary in shape and size, they all share these characteristics. So that's what makes a stave church a stave church!
Ringebu stavkirke
The Ringebu stavkirke pictured here dates back to the 13th century on it's oldest part. Some facts about it's history from the signage there:
Christianity is believed to have been introduced into the region by King Olav Haraldsson in 1021.
It has a statue of St. Lawrence from c.1250.
The west doorway has a dragon motif and is from the Middle Ages.
The tower was built in the 1630s by Werner Olsen.
The altar was installed in 1686; the pulpit in 1703.
Restoration work in 1921 revealed strange carved faces high up on each stave pillar.
892 coins from Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Germany were found under the floor. The oldest was from the 1020s.
The present organ was installed in 1982.
Like many churches, it is surrounded by a graveyard:
Other stavkirker
Ringebu isn't the only stavkirke I've seen in my travels around Norway. Here is a quick video showing a couple others including the Garmo stavkirke discussed briefly in yesterday's post:
Trivia
Unfortunately no trivia prize in this post, but I'm thinking I want to make that a normal part of future posts, so stay tuned. I think it's fun and a great way to engage with my followers more, meet people both from the places I've been and elsewhere, and develop relationships, which is what I like best about Steemit and sharing my adventures. What do you think?
Also, congrats to @superstar2018 and @steingal as the winners of my previous contests! You rock! (literally speaking @steingal haha)
Join me next time for more Norwegian Wood as we tour a grass-roof cabin!
Adventure Every Day is a travel & exploration channel started in 2016. In addition to the Steemit blog, I post short films of my adventures to the Adventure Every Day YouTube channel.
A lovely descriptive post about your heritage and building. Actually have had the pleasure of visiting this area, sadly did not see this church @adventureevryday
Thanks so much joan! I'm an adopted Norwegian - only been here 2 years - but I love this kind of stuff. Sounds like you need to come back again sometime and do some more exploring!
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@adventureevryday Terrific write-up. Certainly This is often truth in each individual state. Upvoted.
Thank you!