Kolbjørn Stjern: About the Stave Church

Sharing a bit of history that I findt to be a very interessant subject

To start with, I want to tell you a little about what a stave church really is.. In countries where good quality wood is abundant, people developed outstanding skills to use this material in construction. History has shown that in the hands of artisan wood becomes as hardy and durable construction material as stone and bricks.

A stave church is a medieval wooden Christian church building once common in north-western Europe. The name derives from the buildings' structure of post and lintel construction, a type of timber framing where the load-bearing posts are called stafr in Old Norse and stav in modern Norwegian. Two related church building types also named for their structural elements, the post church and palisade church, are often also called 'stave churches'.

Originally much more widespread, most of the surviving stave churches are in Norway. The only remaining medieval stave churches outside Norway are those of circa 1500 at Hedared in Sweden and one Norwegian stave church relocated in 1842 to the outskirts of Krummhübel, Germany, now Karpacz in the Karkonosze mountains of Poland. (One other church, the Anglo-Saxon Greensted Church in England, exhibits many similarities with a stave church but is generally considered a palisade church.)

Borgund stave church - Source: Wondermondo

This is the best preserved and most authentic stave church is Borgund stave church in Norway.

This beautiful wooden building was constructed in the time period between 1180 and 1200 AD.

Don't forget to read about the Norwegian pride: Nidaros Church

Did you know that:

The style of stave churches developed mostly in the 11th - 14th centuries?
The stave churches are known to be among the most important respresentatives of European mediveal "architecture".
The stave or "stafr" construction is not exactly architecture style, but rather a specific construction solution for buildings they wanted to last longer?
The famous characteristics of the stave churches are neither dragons' heads or carved portals that many churches are decorated with, but the framework of the so-called staves or "sticks".
Norway's oldest stave church (Urnes stav kirke) in Luster, beside the Sognefjord is listed on the UNESCO list of World Heritage.
Heddal stave church is the largest and is still in use for the people at Notodden in Telemark.
Borgrun stave church is the most visited and most photographed of them all. It's also the best preserved stave church in Norway.
In Borgrun stave church you can find several runic writings on it's walls.

Heddal stave church - Source: Wikipedia

Urnes stave church - Source: Wikimedia

Urnes Stave Church was inscribed on the List of World Heritage in 1979, both "architectural", art historical, and as a source. Urnes Stave Church is unique among the still existing 28 stave churches in Norway.

Video about Borgund stave church (3:37)