Borgund Stave Church

OVERVIEW

Borgund Stave Church is a former parish church in Lærdal in Vestland, built around the year 1200 and the best-preserved stave church in Norway. It served the village until 1868, when a new church was built nearby and the old one became a museum.

HISTORY

Stave churches are timber buildings raised in the generations after Norway's conversion, by people who had not stopped believing in what was there before. Borgund keeps more of that than any other survivor.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

The four outer dragon heads are the most striking of the non-Christian elements: their function is uncertain and disputed, and if they are pagan they have been recruited to the Christian side of the argument. They may have been meant to keep away evil spirits thought to threaten the building — to ward off evil rather than to represent it. The interior is very dark, lit only by narrow circular apertures along the roof, and it is supposed that the narrowness was to prevent the entry of evil spirits. The three entrances are heavily carved with foliage and snakes and are each only wide enough for one person, again so that nothing could come in alongside the congregation. The entry records a building whose own architecture is an argument about what was outside it.

VISITING

Open in season with a visitor centre; entry charge. Signposted from the E16 in Lærdal.