Brattahlíð Church
The Church of Brattahlið is the ruins of a church of Grænlendingar in Qassiarsuk on Greenland . It has been reconstructed as the only medieval church in Greenland.
history
The church of Brattahlíð is considered to be the oldest Christian religious building in Greenland and is said to have been built in the late 10th century by Tjodhild, wife of Erik the Red . Archaeological excavations in Brattahlíð have unearthed the remains or foundation walls of three consecutive churches. The reconstruction of Building I and the ruins of Building III with the ruins of the surrounding churchyard wall are visible today.
Building I was built with walls made of sod and a roof made of wood. There is no evidence of a western end; there was probably a wooden structure in the entrance area, as was the case with many later Greenland stone churches. A C14 dating of the burials in the churchyard indicated that burials began in 976.
This church was replaced around 1200 by a Romanesque church building (Building II) in the immediate vicinity. The construction could possibly be in connection with the establishment of the diocese of Gardar and the arrival of the first bishops in Greenland , which triggered a brisk building activity. The dating is controversial, however, and an edification prior to the arrival of the first Bishop Arnaldur in 1126 is also being discussed. The new church in Brattahlíð was an aisle church with a rectangular apse in the east. The west wall was probably a wooden structure.
This church was replaced after 1300 by the larger building III, which, typical of the Greenland church building in its last phase before the sinking of the Grænlendingar, has a rectangular floor plan. When this church was built, the orientation to the east was corrected. There are two entrances in the south wall, the eastern entrance may have been the priest's gate.
literature
- Jess Angus McCullough: Death in a Dread Place: Belief, Practice, and Marginality in Norse Greenland, ca. 985-1450 . School of Archeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester 2016, especially pp. 101–134.
Web links
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 61 ° 9 ′ 25.5 " N , 45 ° 30 ′ 54.3" W.