Hemse stave church
The hemse stave church is a newly found church from Hemse on Gotland , in the stockade construction built and therefore as a stave church is called. Before the current church of Hemse was built, there was a stave church at the same place, which was built in the 11th century or possibly the beginning of the 12th century, at least in the early phase of Gotland's Christian era. The strong and richly decorated oak planks were used as the floor in the stone church and rediscovered in 1896. The parts are now (as of 2007) in a storage room at the Stockholm Historical Museum , and only part of the church has been built. It is believed that the parts come from a church that stood on the site of today's stone church and was demolished because it had become too small for the community. The Hemse stave church is the only fairly fully preserved early medieval stave church found in Sweden. The Stave Church Hedared outside Borås in Västergötland is the only intact late medieval stave church in Sweden and is dated to about the 1500th Today there is a stone church in the same place ( Church of Hemse ), the foundation stone of which was laid at the beginning of the 13th century.
The discovery
Today's church in Hemse was restored in 1896 according to plans by the architect Erik Lallerstedt and the builder Nils Pettersson . One of the first measures was to replace the floor in the nave . During this work it was discovered that the undersides of the wide oak planks were rounded. The builders reported this discovery to the Riksantikvarieämbetet . The office subsequently commissioned Emil Ekhoff to investigate the find. In his work Svenska stavkyrkor Ekhoff wrote:
- Samma dag jag höll meddelandet, nedreste jag till Gotland och befann mig följande formiddag vid Hemse kyrka. At the end of the circle there is an annuity on a place in gold, the opening is carried out on the kyrkogården. - Någon tvivel om, att detsamma original utgjort en byggnad, customer, so says, ej finnas och all sannolikhet talade för, att denna varit efter stav constructions principer, att den varit en kyrka - således en stavkyrka - säkerligen utkan den oregångaren tillaren tvivel det första kristna templet på platsen, allt antaganden vilka ett närmare study of förhållandena skulle komma att besanna.
- Fyndet var således av allra största intresse och genom prisvärt tillmötesgående från Hemse församlings sida blev Vitterhets Akademien i tillfalla allt det gamla virket, which avgick on the 11th påföljande september till Statens Historiska Museum. (Swedish from khoff Svenska stavkyrkor )
(Translation of the quote:
- On the same day that I received the message, I hurried to Gotland and found myself in Hemse church the following morning. Some of the planks were still in their place in the floor, the rest were piled up in the churchyard. A doubt as to whether they originally identified a building could not be found, as I said, and the probability spoke in favor of the fact that this was a church according to the construction principles of a pole structure, a stave church, certainly the predecessor of today's stone church and without a doubt the first church on site - all assumptions that a closer study of the facts should confirm.
- So the find was of the utmost interest and after a few simple negotiations with the Hemse parish, the Viterhets Academy was able to buy all the old planks that were transported to the State Historical Museum the following September 11th. )
The preserved planks were carefully examined in order to be able to reconstruct the appearance of the original church. The result was published by Ekhoff in the book Svenska stavkyrkor (Swedish stave churches) 1914-1916.
The stave church was first reconstructed like a puzzle in the National Museum on Blasieholm, but it got too big. Only the west facade with the portal could be exhibited.
material
The find consisted mainly of components made of oak:
- Six coarse beams (sleepers) of different lengths and almost square cross-sections.
- Two beams (upper wall edges) with slightly smaller dimensions and a rectangular cross-section.
- 38 approximately three meter long planks (wall planks) with a flat-convex cross-section (one side flat, one convex).
- Six shorter planks with the same shape as the 38 longer planks.
- A long, wide plank with one flat side and the other slightly convex.
- Two convex planks of the portal, richly decorated with ornaments, and a piece of a third similar plank.
- A thin board (wood connection).
- A flat plank with a groove on one side.
- A worn ornament.
- A column capital (possibly a central column) made of Scots pine wood .
- A plank with ground circles (Scots pine wood).
At the ends on the top of the beams there is a 5–6 cm deep groove as well as traces of a wood connection that was used to join the beams on the opposite side. The beams are tarred, which suggests that they were within the stockade planks.
There are only two woods that have made the top of a wall. They are 9 m long and 35 × 17 cm in cross section. Along the top there are recesses for nine roof beams, the outer ones being slightly larger than the inner ones. On the underside there is a longitudinal groove for the wall planks. On the outside there is an ornament in the form of five circles arranged in a cross shape. Traces of tar were also found on the outside.
One of the pieces of pine wood has the same circular pattern as the capital. There is a fold along one edge, which is closed at both ends with a wide indentation. As on the capital, there are no traces of tar on this plank.
The wall planks have suffered great damage from being used in the floor of the stone church. Not a single one remained unscathed. Some of them have been shortened and some have been flattened so that they can be reused as floorboards. The planks are wide and thick and each has a straight and a round side. At the very top, the planks have a recess a few centimeters deep across the entire width. The planks are arched outward and taper towards the bar. Along the long sides, the planks have a 4–5 cm deep and 3–4 cm wide groove, which is intended for a loose wood connection that holds the planks tightly together. So that the planks could be reused as floorboards, the grooves were removed from some planks.
All wall planks have ornaments on the outside in the form of circles in groups of six. The same ornaments can be found on the beams that formed the top of the walls and on the planks in the tower of the church of Alskog . These planks are also believed to have been wall planks from an earlier stave church construction. This circular ornamentation can also be found on medieval furniture from this period.
Traces of tar can be found on most of the planks. Ekhoff suspects that the amount of tar on the individual planks can provide information about where the plank was in the building and whether it was on the north or south side. On the north side the tar has almost covered the ornaments, while on the south side they have completely disappeared. Ekhoff suspects that this and similar wear and tear indicate that the stave church must have survived a long time.
The portal
The portal is badly damaged because it was used as a floor plank. What has been saved are two ornamental side planks and a small piece of the lintel . The motifs may be related to the animal motifs found on rune stones . Some motifs also have striking similarities with the portals of other stave churches, such as the Torpo stave church . The planks in the portal, like the wall planks inside the building, are provided with grooves along the sides and with loose wood connections. Traces of a hinge can still be found on the largest, left portal plank.
When the church was reconstructed, the portal appeared to be incorrectly constructed. The ornaments on the left side of the doorway should continue in a much more compressed arch and not be complete as in a classic round arch.
A leftover piece of wood was also found that had no recognizable function. It is therefore assumed that it was part of the church decoration and was positioned in the roof of the church. However, there is no evidence of this.
Layout
The sleepers have been preserved in their full length, which makes it possible to reconstruct the length and width of the building. The beam that was supposed to be between the nave and the choir is missing, however. In addition, half of the southern wall of the choir is missing. The interior of the church measures 11.1 m, the nave is 7.7 m long and 4.6 m wide. The choir is 3.4 m long and 3.1 m wide.
The beams are not hooked together like in a log house , but half removed and connected with wooden dowels.
The thresholds indicate not only the dimensions of the building, but also where the entrance was. An opening that measures 85 cm has no groove in the threshold and it was assumed that the portal was there. There are no other traces of a door. No traces of an entrance to the choir have been found either, but since part of the south wall is missing, there may have been another entrance exactly in the missing part.
walls
The walls can be almost completely reconstructed from the material obtained, with the exception of the joining at the corners. All of the planks had a groove on both sides and a thinner loose wood connection put them together. Remnants of this wood connection were still present in part of the planks and individual connecting pieces have even been found.
An important detail is that the sleepers were provided with a groove. It is believed that the planks had an opposing wood joint that stood in the grooves. Such a hanging construction is sufficient if the material has a suitable counterpart. However, no trace of a fortification of the planks has been found. The construction protected the threshold against wind and weather, and only the wall planks had to be tarred.
The corner construction is relatively little known. The only thing that is obvious is that stakes of the same type as in Norwegian stave churches were not used. Ekhoff considered several alternatives, but proposed a possible solution using the Greensted Church in Essex (England) as a model. There the corner posts are sturdy posts that are knocked off at an angle so that the tips point inwards and they are rounded outwards. The corner posts rest in the groove of the sleeper in the same way as the other planks. But he couldn't say whether they were also pointed upwards.
The wall planks in the gable did not extend to the roof ridge, but ended with a beam as the upper edge of the wall. No material has been found from the gables that could prove what they looked like. However, one can assume that the relationship with the Norwegian stave churches also has similarities in construction. The gable could possibly have been clad with thinner material.
Connection of the choir with the nave (ship)
In many Norwegian stave churches, bars were used as a transition between the choir and the nave. These are in the east of the nave, in the southwest and northwest corners of the choir. This technology was not used in Hemse, but a special wooden component (Norwegian tile ) with an additional groove. One of these has been preserved and clearly shows how the assembly was done. This component (tile) had an additional groove on the round outside that fits exactly to the other wall parts and runs the entire length. It is clear that this was the construction for the choir because there was no other protruding element such as an apse, sacristy or weapons store. Ekhoff thinks about the preserved component (tile) that it supported the southwest corner of the choir.
It is believed that the outer corners of the choir had the same construction as the nave of the nave.
Ekhoff calculated the original length of the wall divider (Norwegian veggtile ) and thus the height of the ship to be 4.20 m, with a bar length of 4.45 m. The choir walls are calculated to be 3.60 m, 85 cm less than the height of the nave. This may be due to the height difference at Hedared stave church , where it is 90 cm.
Although the material is extensive, there are still many open questions. Were there openings to let in light? How was the roof constructed? Ekhoff believes that, because of similarities with Norwegian stave churches, round openings placed high up are most likely, if there were any openings at all. He thinks that windows with glass were unlikely at the time in Northern Europe and that the light in the room came from candles. There are no traces of any windows in the preserved material.
top, roof
Ekhoff's reconstruction of the roof structure is of the same medieval type as in Garde. The original roof has not been preserved and therefore there is great uncertainty about the construction and very little information can be read from the material. The horizontal bars from the north and south walls have recesses for seven roof beams. These also have additional footprints suggesting that the beams had external heads that may have served to hold the walls in place.
Norwegian stave churches have roof trusses that are richly decorated, but none are as old as Hemse's. That makes it difficult to find direct connections. Instead, like Ekhoff, it seems right to use a medieval roof truss made of guard. In his reconstruction of the outer roof he assumed that there were longitudinal planks, which he concluded from the fact that these are also found in some of the oldest stave churches in Norway. In Garde there are many of these sub-roofs under a blanket of tar. Ekhoff thinks that the same method could have been used in Hemse.
Opposite there are cube capitals made of Scots pine wood, which are made with a short stick. On the two undamaged sides of the capital there are circular ornaments of the same kind as on the wall divider (veggtile) . The core of the rod is pierced with a 4.5 cm hole. In terms of its dimensions, it looks as if the bar were the same height as the walls of the nave. Ekhoff assumed that this helped to support the roof structure, but this was only erected later. However, the roof beams look a bit undersized and may need additional support.
However, it is possible that the roof structure was erected together with the building. In some Norwegian stave churches, the roof structure is supported by strips with corresponding capitals. Such free-standing strips are first found in stave churches with a raised open central space, but an exception is found in individual churches. These are the central mast type churches such as Uvdal Stave Church , which has a central mast supporting a roof turret. In this case the roof turret is a real tower. Perhaps the opposite capital may indicate that Hemse stave church had a similar small tower.
literature
- Claus Ahrens: The early wooden churches in Europe. 2 volumes. Theiss, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-8062-1397-6 ( writings of the Archäologische Landesmuseum 7).
- Erland Lagerlöf, Gunnar Svahnström: Gotlands Kyrkor . 4. omarbetade upplagan. Rabén & Sjögren, Stockholm 1991, ISBN 91-29-61598-4 (Swedish).
- Mereth Lindgren, Louise Lydberg, Birgitta Sandstrøm, Anna Greta Waklberg: Svensk Konsthistoria. Signum, Lund 2002, ISBN 91-87896-52-4 (Swedish).
- Emil Ekhoff: Svenska Stavkyrkor. Cederquist, Stockholm 1914–1916 ( Kungliga Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Academies Arkeologiska Monograph 9, ISSN 0347-0873 ), (Swedish).
Web links
- Hemse stave church - entry in the database "Fornsök" des Riksantikvarieämbetet (Swedish)
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 57 ° 13 ′ 58 ″ N , 18 ° 22 ′ 23 ″ E