Gol Stave Church: A Medieval Timber Church Preserved at Bygdøy
Site at a Glance
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- Country
- Norway
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Norwegian
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page22 sections
History
Gol Stave Church is a medieval Norwegian timber church now preserved at Bygdøy in Oslo, Norway. Built between 1157 and 1216 in the stave-church tradition of the medieval period, it retains substantial medieval fabric and was first documented in 1309. The oldest surviving parts have been dated specifically to 1212. The church originally stood at Gol in Hallingdal, where it served a local Christian community for centuries.
Medieval origins
The church may have replaced an earlier and simpler wooden church associated with the Christianization of Norway. Its inner construction closely resembles that of Hegge Stave Church, raising the possibility that the two buildings were made by the same builder. The structure probably retained its original form until the seventeenth century.
A stave church is a timber church whose main framework consists of upright load-bearing posts set on foundation beams and joined by horizontal members. Gol belongs to the raised-central-space type, in which a taller central interior rises above lower surrounding roof levels.
Alterations at Gol
Documented changes began in the seventeenth century. The apse and choir were painted in 1652, exterior timber cladding was renewed in 1675, and the roof rider and the door between the nave and choir were replaced in 1694. A new choir built with horizontal logs was added in 1730, and the partition separating the choir from the nave was removed in 1740.
A major enlargement in 1802 and 1803 widened the nave to approximately 8.8 metres. The surrounding covered passage was removed, most exterior ornament was taken away, the south portal was eliminated, and the main roof was extended towards the choir. These changes gave the church a basilica-like appearance. A sacristy was added to the choir during later nineteenth-century alterations.
Removal and reconstruction
By the late 1870s, the congregation at Gol wanted a larger, more modern church, and the medieval building was destined for demolition. The Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments purchased the church and its paintings for 200 kroner on the condition that it arrange their removal. A new church was built about 500 metres from the medieval site.
King Oscar II, who ruled Sweden and Norway from 1872 to 1905, provided land at Bygdøy for the reconstruction. Preservation fundraising produced about 387 kroner against relocation costs estimated at no less than 6,500 kroner, so the king paid the shortfall. Ownership passed from the preservation society to the Norwegian monarch.
The church was dismantled between January and March 1884. It travelled by sled from Gol through Gulsvik and across the frozen lake Krøderen to the railway, then continued by train to Oslo. Architect Waldemar Hansteen and builder Torsten Torstensen supervised its reconstruction, which was completed in 1885. Architect Torolf Prytz had prepared survey drawings in 1882 and 1883.
Hansteen and Torstensen sought to reverse the nineteenth-century changes and restore an appearance thought to represent the medieval church. The original exterior had not been recorded in sufficient detail, so the missing covered passage, apse, roof ornament, and other elements were reconstructed chiefly with Borgund Stave Church as a model. Roof-edge ornament drew on Hopperstad Stave Church, while the south portal was newly carved after the west portal.
A museum church
At Bygdøy, Gol Stave Church became the central building in King Oscar II’s collection of historic buildings. The collection opened as a public open-air museum in 1907 and later became part of the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History. The church remains nominally royal property and is managed by the museum. It functions chiefly as a museum exhibit, while Lutheran services and Catholic Masses have also been held there since 1907, preserving its status as a church in use.
The building is automatically listed as a Norwegian cultural-heritage site. At Bygdøy it is displayed with an eighteenth-century one-room building from Hove in Heddal and an approximately 1500 granary from Støyls emne in Hylestad, both associated with Oscar II’s collection.
A portrait donated to the Gol congregation in 1699 by the farmer Bjørn Frøysaak shows him and his family in traditional dress. Now held by the Norsk Folkemuseum, it provides evidence of contemporary attitudes towards churchgoing and the custom of wearing traditional clothing during services.
Replicas and continuing influence
Gol Stave Church has served as a model for replicas in Norway and the United States. A small version was made for the Norwegian Pavilion at Epcot in Florida during the 1980s. A new Gol church was built in Gol’s Middelalderparken in 1994, followed by a replica in the Scandinavian Heritage Park at Minot, North Dakota, completed in 2001. The private Stavkirka på Savjord in Beiarn was built from 2005 and completed in 2006.
The Gol replica at Middelalderparken was commissioned by the private entrepreneur Per Herbrand Rustberggard after local people regretted the loss of the medieval church. Bishop Sigurd Fredrik Osberg laid its foundation stone in 1993. An arson attempt was made against the unfinished building on 16 May 1994, and the completed church was consecrated later that year in the presence of Princess Ragnhild.
Remains
Gol Stave Church is a fourteen-mast building with a rectangular nave, a slightly narrower choir, an apse, and a covered passageway around the exterior. This passageway, called a svalgang, sheltered people before and after services and protected the church walls from weather. Much of the medieval foundation, foundation beams, mast structure, wall boards, raised central construction, and bracing survives, while most of the exterior was reconstructed at Bygdøy in 1884 and 1885.
Framework and roof
Stave framework
The masts stand on a rectangular frame of floor beams. The third mast on each long side and the two central masts on each short side are suspended above the lower beam clamps, creating wider openings and a more open interior. Apart from the corner masts, the upright posts end in individually carved masks with distinct facial expressions.
Two horizontal beam clamps bind the masts together, with Saint Andrew’s crosses between them. These are diagonal braces forming an X shape. Brackets below the lower beam clamp create arcades, while upright boards with circular light openings fill the spaces between the horizontal beams. A later transverse floor beam lies beneath the suspended masts on the long sides.
Roof system
The church has a six-level roof arrangement modeled on Borgund Stave Church. Lean-to roofs over the nave and choir combine with gabled roofs at different heights, a small roof structure called a roof rider over the nave, and two tiers of pyramidal roofs. The successively lower levels create an impression of increasing height and may have emphasized the building’s upward and divine orientation.
The apse has three levels of conical roofs. Crosses stand above the portals, on the apse tower, and on the choir roof. The two nave gables carry west- and east-facing dragon heads with open, tongue-like forms. Linked wooden circles decorate the roof ridges, while the projecting gable edges carry interwoven zigzag ornament and lower dragon figures modeled on Hopperstad. Unlike Hopperstad’s single-piece ornament, these figures consist of separate rods nailed to the boards. Crosses, dragon heads, and related figures may have been intended to ward off harmful supernatural forces.
Regular wooden shingles cover the roofs. Further shingles protect the upper cylinder of the apse tower and the sides of the nave-gable roof. The shingles and masts are tarred approximately every two to five years, producing the dark surface associated with older Norwegian stave churches. A front-gable panel once displayed Oscar II’s crown, the numeral “II,” and the year 1884 in Roman numerals. It was removed during the postwar period, probably because it conflicted with the intended appearance of a classical stave church.
Covered passageway
The reconstructed svalgang has small arcades modeled on Borgund. Its outer wall is formed by upright boards and horizontal beams. The arcade columns have square-plan, semicircular-profile bases, cylindrical shafts, and cube-shaped capitals that support the arches and roof beams.
Portals and painted surfaces
West portal
The west portal is largely original but underwent extensive restoration after the nineteenth-century alterations. Half-columns with cylindrical bases and capitals flank a horizontal lintel, above which reconstructed carved boards carry foliage and fighting dragons in the Sogn style. Human figures blowing air from their mouths appear on the columns and may recall earlier representations of Odin. The door retains wrought-iron fittings, a key plate, a door ring, and a raised threshold.
South and choir portals
The south portal had decayed severely and was newly carved at Bygdøy after the west portal. Surviving pieces of the original portal served as references, and the original material is kept in the Norwegian Folk Museum. The choir portal has side boards with planed profiles and straight lintel boards. The church also has a portal facing south from the choir.
Apse and choir paintings
The apse contains a reconstructed painting from 1652. It depicts the Last Supper with Jesus Christ and the twelve apostles, alongside quotations from Revelation 20:6 and Luke 22:15–16 in Danish. Four arrangements of fruit, a dedication naming the church and the year 1652, and the donor’s name, Hans, complete the composition. Painted arcade windows appear below the Last Supper and on both sides of the choir.
Cartouches on the north choir wall name parish members and sponsors who paid for the decoration, as well as two minor officials. On the opposite side, four seated Evangelists write their texts. Matthew is accompanied by a man, Mark by a lion, Luke by an ox, and John by an eagle. The name “Iffuer. Kineberig” beside John may identify the painter. The inner columns probably received their marble-like finish after the Reformation reached Norway in 1537, imitating stone church columns. These paintings were restored during the late nineteenth-century reconstruction, despite the plan to give the church a pre-Reformation appearance.
Carvings, inscriptions, and furnishings
Runic and incised decoration
Thirteen runic inscriptions and numerous incised figures appear on the primary structural elements. Three of the clearest inscriptions contain the Latin prayer “Pater noster qui es in caelis,” an Old Norse instruction to give the runes their correct meaning, and an Old Norse phrase interpreted as “Kiss me for my toil and striving.” The intended recipient of the last phrase is unknown.
Other markings may be initials from a Latin liturgical text, the first three runes of the fuþark, a woman’s name, the Latin fragment “non sit,” or a magically symbolic sequence rather than ordinary writing. Some carvings may have been made by the portal carvers, while others may have been added by members of the congregation. Circular ornaments and triskeles may have been produced during the church’s consecration.
The imagery includes foliage, leaves, circles, triskeles, valknuts, lions, dogs or wolves, dragons, horses, reindeer, an armed rider, and two sailing ships. Plant ornament may date from the early thirteenth century. Some geometric designs may be later, the ships probably date from the sixteenth century, and many other figures belong broadly to the church’s Catholic period without a secure date.
Associated furnishings
A carved thirteenth-century chair from Heddal Stave Church belongs to the associated collection. Its back shows lions, attacking animals, intertwined dragons, a central human figure, foliage, and dragon heads. The armrests end in carved heads, one wearing a helmet and the other a crown. The chair was installed at Gol after reconstruction and removed during the postwar period.
A dark fourteenth-century crucifix from the demolished Veum Stave Church in Telemark was formerly placed above the Saint Andrew’s crosses on the choir side of the nave. It has an “INRI” inscription and a white-painted figure of Christ in orange and grey clothing. An altar from Heddal Stave Church was also installed in Gol. It depicted Christ, the symbols of the four Evangelists, and two groups of three apostles. Double-hoop chandeliers were placed in the nave and choir after reconstruction. These objects were later removed to protect them from theft and damage and to allow safer preservation.
Incisions on the north side indicate the former position of a row of low benches, and comparable seating probably stood on the south side. Marks on the southeastern nave columns show where a Lutheran pulpit had been fixed, while other marks suggest that side galleries once supplied additional seating. The present nave has low benches with semicircular, arcade-like openings.
Replica buildings
Epcot replica
The Epcot replica reproduces selected exterior features, including the nave roof proportions, shingles, and dragon-head ornament. It omits the choir and apse, replacing them with a portal. Simpler roof-top posts take the place of portal crosses, and the interior is a two-sided exhibition space rather than a stave-church interior.
Middelalderparken replica
The church at Middelalderparken includes a north portal and additional wooden furnishings, including a choir bench, chair, altar, cupboard, and baptismal font. It does not reproduce the post-Reformation paintings; blue cloth with gold vertical stripes covers its apse boards.
Minot and Savjord replicas
The Minot replica has wider portals and correspondingly modified carvings. One portal was carved in the United States from American pine, while another was begun in Norway from Norwegian pine and completed in the United States with Weymouth pine. Benches, chairs, an altar, and an apse cross were made after Norwegian stave-church models.
Stavkirka på Savjord is a smaller replica about 10 metres high. Its construction used more than 1,500 metres of pine boards and over 4,200 roof shingles.
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