Stave churches are architectural marvels
By TERRY HOUSHOLDER
From a distance they look like gingerbread houses, but in reality
the stave churches of Norway are incredible architectural masterpieces.
Nearly 1,000 years ago, a young Viking warrior, Olaf Haraldsson,
was converted to Christianity while away from Norway. He returned
to his home country in 1015 to unite it.
He defeated the Danes and Swedes and was anointed as king of
Norway. He set about unifying and Christianizing his realm. The
stave churches attest to the success of the man who became canonized
in 1164 as St. Olaf and is still revered today as a national
hero and patron.
By 1300, there were more than 1,000 stave churches in Norway.
Today, only 29 survive. The only authentic stave churches that
exist outside Norway are one in Essex, United Kingdom, one in
Sweden, and one in Poland.
The method of construction gives the stave churches their name.
The elaborate system of columns and fastidious structural details
unite to create a precise stave construction that has resisted
centuries of wear and tear.
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There are several types of stave churches but the common element to all of them is that they have corner posts and a framework of timber with wall planks standing on sills. The walls are known as stave walls, thus the name stave church.
A stave wall consists of vertical planks with their bases in
a groove in the sill-beam, and their tops in a groove in the
wall-plate. At each corner is an upright post connected to the
sill below and the wall-plate above. Thus, a stave wall has a
solid frame consisting of sill, wall-plate, and two corner posts.
The sill is filled with vertical planks. The sills of the four
walls form a solid horizontal frame on which the whole church
rests. The wall-plates form a corresponding horizontal frame
at the top.
The earliest stave churches had walls of upright posts and planks.
They were embedded in holes in the ground. This also caused their
bases to rot.
Remnants of this first generation of Norwegian Christian churches
can still be seen in several archaeological sites.
Apparently, those churches didn't stand for more than 100 years.
The problem was solved by introducing sills, upon which the planks
and staves rested, thus raising the walls above ground level,
protecting them against rot. The method was so effective that
the structures built in the 12th century are still in use.
Most of the stave churches were small, simple buildings with
a short nave and a narrow chancel. The roofing was usually wooden
shingles, and both the roof and walls were covered with pine
tar.
Because the churches were small, they could not accommodate the
expanding congregations, particularly after seating was introduced.
Thus, most of the stave churches were demolished, or extended
and rebuilt.
We visited several stave churches on our recent trip to Norway.
While each had its own unique flavor, my favorite was the Heddal
Stave Church in the south-central portion of the country. It
is the largest of the stave churches that survive.
Described as a ''Gothic cathedral in wood,'' and ''one of the
most luxurious and beautiful monuments of its kind'' by Norwegian
art historian and professor Lorentz Dietrichson, it was built
in about 1250 and was consecrated to the Virgin Mary. The chancel
of the present structure was originally the nave of a smaller
church from the 1100s.
The Reformation in the 16th century brought Lutheranism to the
country and the Heddal church did not escape the post-Reformation
fervor. In the mid-1600s, the central section was replaced with
a low, flat ceiling, and windows were installed just below the
ceiling. Some of the early paintings - probably of early saints
or popes - were painted over.
The interior remained unchanged until about 1850 when an architect
destroyed the 17th century interior. A restoration in 1952-54
rediscovered some of the surviving decorations from the Middle
Ages and the 1600s.
The church contains scenes of the crucifixion and Last Supper.
There also are paintings of the apostles.
The Heddal church, like many of the structures that remain, is
still in use. Services are at 11 a.m. each Sunday, as is the
custom in Lutheran churches throughout Norway.
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