Stave Church in Averoy

Here are more images of the Stave Kirke in Averoy. There are a number of these old churches still around and each is ineresting. We have visited about 4 (including one in the Folkmuseum here in Oslo). This is one of my favorites. The walls are so tall and relatively unstable that these poles are necessary to keep the walls up. (I don't know if that is original to the church, but it wouldn't surprise me).

This is the inside and you can see how heavily decorated it is. THe whole church was painted on the inside. The decorations are from a later time - perhaps the 1600s. In a later post I will show you a church that was mostly preserved from its inception and you will see the difference.

You can see the date for yourself. I think this means that some of the artifacts here date from that time - when Christianity was imposed on the populace and the early churches (stave kirkes) were built. There were casket lids that we saw that dated fromt he 1600s which were found under the church during a renovation (int he 1920s, I think)

Here is a view down the church (away from the pulpit). The priest's family (that is right) sat in the blue balcony on the left. A ship like the one here can be seen in many of the old churches (we saw them in Amsterdam as well). These were a seafaring people after all.