Urnes Stave Church

The church dates from the early 1130s, but some of its materials were reused from an earlier church on the site, built in the 1070s. These include all the exterior wood carvings, almost all the wall planks and two foundation beams. Before that, two churches with posts set directly into the ground stood here, the first built around 950. The present church is therefore the fourth on the same site. Urnes Stave Church was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1979. The Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments took ownership of the church in 1881. The church consists of a nave and chancel, each with a raised central section. An open covered gallery stands before the entrance, and a square roof turret with an octagonal spire rises above the western end of the nave. The load-bearing posts are known as “staves.” This construction, with upright posts secured between a horizontal beam above and a sill beam below, gives the stave church its name. At Urnes, the posts have richly decorated cushion capitals, or column heads. The exceptional north portal comes from the earlier church on the site. Its side panels feature elaborate carved animal ornamentation, which gave its name to the Urnes style. The furnishings are equally rich. The Romanesque Calvary group hanging on the wall facing the chancel dates from around 1150. The altarpiece was made in 1699. The Viking ship-shaped candlestick on the altar, the bishop’s chair in the chancel and the font cover on the south wall all date from the twelfth century. Two Limoges candlesticks from around 1200, which belong to the original altar furnishings, are no longer kept in the church.