When I think of Norway, the first things that come to mind are Vikings, fjords, and stave churches. When I began researching this topic, I thought stave churches were unique to Norway and perhaps Scandinavia, but that is untrue. They were common in Northern and Western Europe during the middle ages. What makes them unique to Norway is that some are still left there. Initially, there may have been as many as 2,000 stave churches may have existed in Norway; however, only twenty-eight of them remain. Yet that is still quite amazing for wooden structures that have endured for a thousand years. As for elsewhere in the world, there is only one left in Sweden, and there is a debate about whether the English one is truly a stave church.
What is a stave church (stavkirke)?These were wooden churches mostly built between the 10th and 14th centuries after the Vikings became Christians. They used their shipbuilding skills, which could withstand the punishment of the seas and weather. Admired for their engineering genius, these buildings used a post and lintel construction. As in the drawing below, the lintel or crossbeam is held up by the two large posts called staves. In turn, these staves rested on stone foundations to prevent rot from ground moisture.
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