Rollag Stave Church ( no, Rollag stavkyrkje) is a

stave church A stave church is a medieval wooden Christian church building once common in north-western Europe. The name derives from the building's structure of post and lintel construction, a type of timber framing where the load-bearing ore-pine posts a ...

in the municipality of

Rollag Rollag is a municipality in the traditional and electoral district Buskerud in Viken county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Numedal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Rollag, although the most pop ...

Viken county Viken may refer to: *Viken, Scandinavia, a historical region *Viken (county), a Norwegian county established in 2020 *Viken, Sweden, a bimunicipal locality in Skåne County, Sweden *Viken (lake), a lake in Sweden, part of the part of the Göta cana ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. The church is located a few kilometres north of the centre of the village of Rollag.

History

Rollag Stave Church was probably originally built in second half of the 12th century. It was first mentioned in written sources in 1425. Rollag Stave Church is decorated with a mixture of artistic expressions from a series of periods from the early Middle Ages. The church has been remodeled several times with not much left of the original building. Originally, the church had been a simple church with a rectangular nave. It was rebuilt around 1660 into a cruciform church. A new

apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In ...

was added in 1666. This choir was replaced and enlarged in 1670. The transept was constructed in 1697–1698. A gallery was added in 1702. The sacristy was rebuilt in 1739. Around 1760, an additional lining wall was placed on top of the structure and the church was extended to the west. A Baroque pulpit was added in 1763. Architect and art historian

Herman Major Schirmer Herman Major Schirmer (20 June 1845 – 11 April 1913) was a Norwegian architect, educator and historian of art. He has been described as "one of the chief ideologues" of Norwegian romantic nationalism. He was also a diligent writer and Norway's fi ...

conducted surveys of Rollag Stave Church in 1911 while he chaired the

Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments ( no, Fortidsminneforeningen) is an organization focused on conservation preservation in Norway. The Society was founded in 1844. The founders were painters, historians, art historians ...

. Rollag Stave Church underwent restoration work in 1932.

Gallery

File:Rollag kirke 03.jpg , Rollag stave church steeple File:Rollag_stavkrk.jpg, Decorated door to the church File:Rollag kirke 01.JPG, Decorative art work Rollag_stave_church_07apr2005.jpg,

References

Other sources

* Leif Anker (2005) ''The Norwegian Stave Churches'' (Oslo: Arfo Forlag)

External links

Rollag stave church in a video about churches in Numedal
{{coord, 60, 01, 13, N, 9, 16, 28, E, region:NO-06_type:landmark_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title 12th-century churches in Norway Churches in Viken Rollag Stave churches in Norway