Borgund Stave Church
Borgund Stave Church, Medieval wooden church in Lærdal, Norway
Borgund Stave Church is a medieval timber building in Lærdal Municipality, Norway, supported by vertical pine posts that form the main load-bearing frame. The central hall rises above the side aisles in both nave and sanctuary, while carved trim and openwork panels separate the interior spaces.
The prayer hall was raised around 1180 and consecrated to the Apostle Andrew, while later centuries brought only minor structural additions. Modern restorers have studied its preserved timber joints and carvings to reconstruct details lost at other Norwegian wooden churches.
Carved dragon heads along the roofline echo older northern craft traditions that builders adapted when Christianity arrived in the region. Visitors notice runic inscriptions cut into the wooden posts, connecting the prayer hall to earlier writing customs that survived into the 12th century.
The building stands beside the road linking Bergen and Oslo and opens to visitors from spring through autumn. An information center across the road hosts displays on medieval timber construction and offers refreshments along with regional handcrafts.
Experts have found that the frame still carries medieval iron nails and hand-forged fittings left unchanged since the building was raised. Tree-ring analysts identified individual pine trunks felled between 1070 and 1180 before craftsmen shaped them into posts.
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