Just photos through reflections I liked...

#music #photography reflections #thekirkeband #kirke #theayaband #Tampere #memory #holiday

Hakadal Church. The three burial mounds from the Iron Age on Klokkertoppen tell us that this has been a sacred place for perhaps more than 2000 years. Where Odin, Thor and Skadi may have been the most important gods in Norse religion in this area. #norge #norway #woodland #kirke #church #autumn #mist #take #natur #naturephotography #naturelovers #skog #skaugubbe

The last photo by me on Norwegian stave churches is a door from Gol stave church, the one moved from Gol to Oslo in 1884.

Those carpenters were quite good …

#doorsday
#golstavkyrkje
#stavkyrkje
#kirke
#church
#architecture
#arkitektur
#dør
#håndverk
#craft
#norway
#norge
#folkemuseet
#oslo

Wood is the Nordic language.

Maybe one of the most esoteric stave churches of Norway; this is a meeting place for old valhalla Gods, Catholicism and protestantism. I must disappoint all dragon lovers though, but I can offer a santaclaus instead.

Norway has a friendly fight with Finland about the whereabout of Santa Claus, but maybe we have missed a golden opportunity to really place him where he belongs, in Telemark and at Eidsborg stave churche [toungue in cheek]. This is one of 2000 churches dedicated to St Niculas, i.e. the saint who we think inspired to Santa Claus. Midsummer (Jonsokk) is celebrated here by lifting the statue of St Nicholas (Nikulsvandring) from the church, and have a walk with him around the close lake. Or as we say in Norwegian “De dødes tjern” (!) as one of our most famous authors, André Bjerke, sat close to the lake and wrote a classic.

The stave church itself is built between approx. 1150-1180, and have changed many times later. The original statue of St Niculs is a copy, the original is at a museum in Oslo.

I passed here out of season and all I saw was a well held church.

#norge
#norway
#stavkyrkje
#eidsborg
#stnikuls
#santaclaus
#julenissen
#arkitektur
#architecture
#bygning
#kirke
#church
#landscape
#telemark

Wood is the Nordic language.

Garðar kirkja has moved.

The small, mountain-village of Gol threatend to sell the stave church in parts in the 1870ies, so it was bought for 200 kroner and moved to what became the open museum of Bygdøy in Oslo in 1884. Only three churches are not placed in a fjord or on the mountains, and two of them have been moved there later, Fantoft in Bergen and this one, Oslo. The third is on an island (Grip stavkyrkje).

Gol stavkyrkje is a hyper version of a stave church, and the dragons and decorations are much loved both by the locals and visitors.
It is owned by the Norwegian king, kong Harald 5th. And there is a copy of this in USA, North-Dakota of course.

Btw, Gol regretted its energy to have the old one sold-off, and have also made a copy.

The map shows where the churches are.

#gol
#oslo
#bygdøy
#folkemuseet
#norge
#norway
#stavkyrkje
#arkitektur
#architecture
#bygning
#kirke
#church

Wood is the Nordic language

Some of the Norwegian stave churches seem kind of … just like any wooden building. Like Urnes.
Until you see its decor.

A couple of years ago I was driving around Lusterfjorden, early September and just looking at a landscape I didnt really know. And suddenly, as it happens, I saw a sign to Ornes. It reminded me of something, I just couldn’t place it. So, I drove on and ended up at a ferry quay. The sky was blue, the water green, the trees in all colurs of autumn, and in the distance I saw a peninsula and maybe a … really, could this be Urnes, the most famous of all the Norwegian stave churches?

Being late in season I had to do a longer hike while waiting for the not-so-frequent ferry to the other side of the fjord. I was totally alone. Everything was closed, the cafe, the toilets, the tourist information, the church itself - it was just me and this UNESCO monument.

Urnes is the oldest of the stave churches we have left in Norway, approx. 1130, and it might be an even older church beneath it.
Urnes has given name to its own decorative style, and, yes, there are dragons. I am not sure if this is keeping Christ awake at night.
The style is found in Denmark, the British islands and Ireland.

I still have this happy/hot/excited/unbelivable feeling inside me thinking back at this day.
Taking the ferry back I shared it with farmers and their apples. This is The Apple Country of Norway.

#ornes
#urnes
#vestlandet
#norge
#norway
#stavkyrkje
#UNESCO
#arkitektur
#architecture
#bygning
#kirke
#church
#landscape
#lusterfjorden
#skjolden

Wood is the Nordic language

Some years ago I moved from Bergen to Oslo, from the western part of Norway to the eastern. I had to move my stuff in winter, and it was a lot of snow. I had visited Borgund stave church at summertime, but never in winter, and as I passed it I saw the possibility to visit it. Me and a lonely motorcyclist (!). I hope he too enjoyed it as much as I did.

Most Norwegian stave churches are in the south and usully by a fjord or inland, somewhere high up in the mountains. Usually in a small villiage who either couldn’t afford a new church or actually thought it worth saving. While they build a larger, warmer church next to it. At some point there was a law requiring that a church should seat at least 30 people, many stave churches couldn’t apply to that and they become obsolete. So, that is how 1300+ became 28.

Borgund is the best saved church we have, and also most famous, perhaps? It is something about how it sits in the landscape, the monumentality of it. It is also the most commercialized, with the most visitors (except for Gol stavkyrkje moved to Oslo perhaps). Borgund is quite accessible from Bergen.

And btw, I am back west …

#borgund
#sognogfjordane
#vestlandet
#norge
#norway
#stavkyrkje
#arkitektur
#architecture
#bygning
#kirke
#church
#landscape

Wood is the Nordic language