Flåm Church, Heritage church in Flåmsdalen valley, Norway.
Flåm Church is a wooden building standing north of Fretheim in the Flåmsdalen valley with a rectangular nave measuring roughly 9 by 7 meters (28 by 23 feet) and a square chancel about 5 meters (16 feet) on each side. The structure rests on a stone foundation and maintains its original timber construction intact.
Master builder Magne Essen constructed this church in 1670 using materials salvaged from two earlier structures, including an ancient stave church dating to 1340. The reuse of timber from previous buildings was a common practice in local church construction of that era.
The interior decoration displays Renaissance paintings with natural motifs including trees, lions, hares, foxes, and deer across the walls. These designs show how the local community once blended nature and religious faith in their sacred space.
The building welcomes visitors during the summer months, with public restrooms available in an adjacent wooden structure topped with a turf roof. The location is easy to reach and fits well into a day trip exploring the surrounding valley.
Inside the building, experts discovered a Venetian knight's cloak from the 1300s that served as an altar cloth until 1930, revealing how objects from distant trading regions sometimes reached small mountain villages. This rare find hints at connections the local community once maintained with other parts of Europe.
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