Urnes Stave Church
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How it came to be
Excavation in 1956 found two earlier churches beneath Urnes stave church on its promontory in the Sognefjord. The first was a palisade church from the time of conversion to Christianity; the second was built in the later 11th century and pulled down in the mid-12th.
The present church was built around 1130, and its north portal and some wall planks were taken from the earlier church. The interlaced, fighting animals carved on the portal are among the last examples of Viking animal ornament and gave their name to the Urnes style. Its columns and arches render Romanesque stone architecture in wood, and inside are carved figurative capitals of the 12th century.
The choir walls were painted in 1601, and the choir screen and the wooden vault of the nave were added around 1700. The Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments has owned the church since 1881, the year the parish was abolished. It was inscribed in 1979.
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