Oct 04 2008
Heddal stavkirke
Once again I’m grateful to the Solheims for taking me on another trip. Without a car, as I am, it would be almost impossible to see these places.
Heddal
This time we went to Heddal (see map) to visit, what Wiki says is Norway’s largest stave church (kirke is pronounced “hir-keh”). As you can see in the photos, the church is incredible. It was constructed nearly 1000 years ago in the style that was then popular. As everywhere in the medieval world, wood was significantly less expensive than stone and so was used to build the church.
It’s a gorgeous piece of architecture that’s in remarkably good shape for being 800 years old. Interestingly, there are pagan symbols all over the supposedly Christian building. You can see the dragon heads in the photos. Also note the saint’s head on an animals body carved into the church portal as well as the character Fafnir carved into one of the other church portals.
Unfortunately we couldn’t go inside the church. They close it up after 1 September. It has something to do with heating the structure, which they don’t do in the winter to preserve it. Temperature changes decrease longevity of most materials, especially wood. Amazingly, the church is actually still used for various functions during the summer. So it’s more than just a monument to the past.
Gaustatoppen
After visiting the church we drove a little way further into the mountains. Heddal is nestled in the foothills of Norway’s north-south mountain range so it wasn’t far to get to some cooler hills. We almost got to the peak of Gaustatoppen (see map). It’s a popular hiker’s destination sitting at 1800m above sea level. The road doesn’t reach the peak of course but does come to some 600m within it. People park their cars and hike up, it takes about two hours. Needless to say I’m planning on hiking it just as soon as I have the chance.
Norway, as I think you know by now, is a rocky place so vegetation has it hard here and this is even more true at higher altitudes where only scrub brush survives. Because of this there is nothing obstructing the view. The large open areas made for a very strange sensation, like I was standing on a different planet. I did my best to capture the scale by using a distant farmhouse so hopefully you’ll see what I’m talking about when you look at the photos.
Oh and the day we went, Oslo enjoyed 14°C while up on the hill it was 4°C with a very strong and cold wind. So if we look cold in the photos it’s because we were.
(Sorry that some of the photos look like they were taken by a drunk, I didn’t realize how off-level they were until I put them up and after that I didn’t feel like fixing them.)