Hvalsey Church
The Church of Hvalsey is the ruins of a church of Grænlendingar in Qaqortukulooq on Greenland . It is the only largely intact medieval church in Greenland and therefore North America.
history
Hvalsey was settled around the year 1000 by Þórkell Farserkr, a nephew of Erik the Red . The church ruins that are preserved today are dated to the period after 1300, but a previous building preceded them. It was one of about 12 churches in the eastern settlement (Eystribyggð).
Hvalsey is the only church in Greenland where the height of the roof (about 6 m) and the position of the windows can still be determined. With its rectangular floor plan, the church belongs to a type in Greenland that has been documented six times. This type of construction is considered to be the last phase of church construction in Greenland and dates back to after 1300. Art historians compare the ruined church of Hvalsey with the similar so-called Old Church of Eidfjord in Norway , which was built around 1309. The ruins of Hvalsey measure 16 × 8 m², the walls made of uncut field stones are about 1.5 m thick. It has six windows, including one above the west entrance, and a carefully crafted Romanesque arched window in the east wall. The window niches widen inwards like a funnel, a construction not known in Iceland but from early churches in the British Isles. The church was probably plastered white. The roof was made of wood and was covered with sod. The execution of the construction indicates that the bishops of Gardar probably even brought master builders from Norway to Greenland. The church and cemetery were surrounded by a wall.
A wedding in Hvalsey Church in 1408 is one of the last recorded events before the end of the Grænlendingar in Greenland in the first half of the 15th century.
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: 60 ° 49'43.3 " N , 45 ° 46'54.1" W.