Haltdalen Stave Church

The Stave Church Haltdalen (or stave church Holtålen ) is one of the oldest of its kind in Norway; at the same time it is the northernmost authentic Stave Church in the country. It was built around 1170 in the village Haltdalen, which now belongs to the commune Holtålen in the province of Sør -Trøndelag. Since 1937, the stave church is Haltdalen part of the Trøndelag Folk Museum ( Sverresborg ) in Trondheim.

History

The simple church dendrochronological studies of the construction material was first documented in the year 1345th, however, have shown that the oldest parts of the church come already from the period around 1170. The former parish church of the then independent municipality Haltdalen been exposed to multiple major changes over time. In 1704, she was greatly extended by a large farming on the western side. Since the church was threatened in the late 19th century of decline, it was dismantled in 1884, brought to Trondheim, completely restored and re-erected in Kalvskinnet district. As part of this renovation was to the west wall and the portal of the stave church Ålen ( also commune Holtålen ) equipped, the end of the 19th century, a tear fell victim.

Since 1937 the stave church Haltdalen located on the grounds of the Trøndelag Folk Museum, an open air museum in Trondheim district Sverresborg. It is now used almost exclusively as a church museum and hardly worship.

Architecture and interior design

It is in the stave church Haltdalen a simple long church without inner bars, with a rectangular nave (about 6 × 5 meters) and a slightly narrower, just completed choir (about 3 x 3.5 meters). On the supporting pillars of today is still evident that the church once a Svalgang, a kind of portico, disposal, but it is not preserved. The cornerstones have spherical bases that have been made ​​of several transverse timbers.

The church has a west portal, a south porch and a situated against the south choir portal.

An apse has never owned the timber. Originally two windows had been located on the longer walls, but they were closed. There are faint traces of painted decoration, which can be dated back to the beginning of the 17th century on the east wall of the building.

The church has an altar, baptismal font and a pulpit, the artist Peter A. Lilje painted 1652. A censer of bronze and a missal by 1519, each of the church in Haltdalen, are now in the Science Museum in Trondheim.

The simple variant of a stave church without a saddle roofs which is named after this church Haltdalen - type was probably very common in the Middle Ages. Today there are only six houses of worship this construction in Norway.

Replicas

Heimaey

A replica of the stave church presented in 2000, the official gift of Norway in Iceland to mark the thousandth anniversary of the introduction of Christianity on the Atlantic island; they do today stands on the island of Heimaey. See Heimaey stave church.

Haltdalen

In Haltdalen, the original site of the church in Gauldalen, was another replica, which was officially consecrated in 2004 by Bishop Finn Wagle Trondheim. For them, 130 cubic meters were installed up to 400 years old spruce. You should give, among other tourism in the region impulses. The reasons are thus similar to the replica of the offset Gol Stave Church, which was also built in his original village in the 1990s.

Kücknitz

Built by children 2007 Evangelical Lutheran Church " St. Nikolai " in Lübeck- Kücknitz is also a replica of the Norwegian stave church. In contrast to the church Hedalen but this has square and not a usual for stave churches round columns. The west portal is a lot wider, and also the wider south portal is located closer to the choir. The chorus, however, has no portal.