Hopperstad stave church

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Hopperstad Stave Church (2010)

The Hopperstad stave church is a stave church in the municipality of Vik in Fylke Vestland / Norway . It is one of the oldest of the 30 authentic stave churches still in existence and today belongs to the Norwegian monument protection association Fortidsminneforeningen .

location

The stave church in Vikøyri on the Sognefjord as seen from Riksvei 13. In this view it is hidden behind the tree next to it.

Hopperstad Stave Church is located on a hill in Vikøyri, which belongs to the municipality of Vik by the Sognefjord , about 500 meters west of Riksvei 13. Not far from the church is the Romanesque church at Hove .

history

Hopperstad Stave Church was built around 1070 and is still in its original location. In 1997, seven dendrochronological samples were taken from the wood of the church to determine the age. The age of the wood determined from this is estimated to be between 1034 and 1116.

In 1880 the Norwegian Heritage Association ( Fortidsminneforeningen ) acquired the stave church, which they still own today. In the same year, the Norwegian architect Peter Andreas Blix began extensive restoration work on the church. He worked free of charge and also invested his own money. He was supported by the antiquarian Lars J. Nicolaysen. Blix based his work on the stave church of Borgund . The structure of the church before the restoration was more similar to that of the stave churches of Urnes and Kaupanger . Missing building parts such as the Svalgang , the apse with tower and roof turrets were added by Blix. He completed the west portal. He could leave the south portal unchanged. He largely removed the wall paintings from the 17th century. He left the St. Andrew's crosses unchanged.

In 2008 the roof of the church was renewed. In the course of this work, it was also given a new black-brown coat of tar.

Architecture and interior design

construction

The construction of the church is a three-aisled columned stave church. The free-standing columns in the nave support the roof structure over the raised central nave. In terms of structure, the church belongs to the Borgund type of stave churches. The St. Andrew's crosses on the roof structure were added a few centuries later.

The high pillar construction

The high column system consists of six masts on each of the long sides, which extend to the ground. The transverse side has three columns, whereby the middle one does not go down to the floor, but down to the lower beam clamp. Originally the column ended on a round arch. All columns bear undecorated cube capitals at the top below the arcades . The arcades themselves carry the threshold (transverse masts) for the walls of the raised room. The St. Andrew's crosses, the Balkan pliers below and the lower arcades were added later and do not belong to the original architecture.

Roof construction

The roof structure of the church has six levels and is modeled on the Borgund stave church with two levels of monopitch roofs that cover the nave and the choir at the same time. In contrast to the model in Borgund, the upper monopitch roof is on top of the lower one, so that no wall can be seen in between. The lower pent roof has a flatter angle. A step with a gable roof follows on the pent roof . The nave and the choir each have a gable roof of different heights. On the gable roof of the ship there is a three-tier roof turret with a monopitch roof and two-tier pyramid roofs. On the top there is a Celtic cross with a weathercock . This multiple structure with increasingly smaller roofs makes the church appear higher than it actually is through an optical illusion. This was supposed to emphasize the orientation of the building towards heaven and thus towards the divine.

The apse consists of three tiers of conical roofs , whereby the lower two tiers are cut off by the construction similar to the pent roofs of the ship and lie on top of one another and cut off on the west side by the choir. This is followed by a round turret with a conical roof, which has a small protrusion at its base.

In contrast to the Borgund stave church, the portals have a simple gable roof, as the arcade at the portals continues straight ahead. Likewise, no blind north portal was built, which means that the church does not have a symmetrical exterior. The gables of the gable roofs of the ship portals bear crosses. The missing cross of the west portal was added again during the restoration in 2008. The northern choir portal has no additional structure. The apse tower and the saddle roof of the choir also each bear a cross. On the two gable roofs of the ship are the flickering dragon heads typical of Viking ships in east and west direction . The ridges of the gable roofs are decorated. The verge cornice of the gable roof consists of zigzag-like , interwoven ornaments with dragon figures attached at the bottom. The many crosses and figures could fulfill the same apotropaic function to ward off the demonic as the gargoyles on stone churches.

Choir

A wall with a portal stands between the nave and the choir. The portal is made up of columns with cube capitals and a round arch spans them. At the bottom of the portal there is an oval threshold. On the left and right in the wooden wall there are three clover-leaf arcades with very thin columns. Such walls were common in many other stave churches, but were removed over time.

On the south and north walls there are many incisions in the shape of lions' heads, fish, seals, circular strokes and much more. There is a painted figure of a saint on a column. The painting dates from the Middle Ages.

Altars

High altar with catechism tablet from 1621.

The church has three stone altars . The main altar in the choir has a three-part catechism tablet , which is believed to date from 1621. The nave has a stone side altar on the north and south sides. The northern altar has a gable roof-shaped superstructure ( ciborium ) from the transition from the 13th to the 14th century. Based on the paintings and the placement in the nave it can be assumed that it is consecrated to Our Lady . The altar on the south side very likely also had a ciborium, which the changes to the south masts suggest. Today it stands in the nave without any decoration.

Ciborium above the north altar

The heads at the ciborium (Jesus, queen, king, monk).
Images on the bottom of the ciborium. Upper half of l. To the right : Annunciation of the Lord , Christmas , proclamation of the good news to the shepherds (two pictures). Lower half of l. To the right: Adoration of Jesus by the Magi, Jesus in the Temple, child murder in Bethlehem, flight to Egypt.

The ciborium stands on the northern masts of the ship and on two additional supports in the central aisle. The rear support originally belonged to the ciborium on the south side and the back of the ciborium may have been covered with leather. The gable roof consists of windboards that are decorated with carvings. The rear gable of the gable roof shows two angels waving a censer . The reverse side The underside of the roof is painted and shows scenes from the early childhood of Jesus in medallions inscribed in Latin. The pictures have been improperly cleaned and restored in the past and the original character has been destroyed. The ciborium is decorated with carvings. The front columns are carved with rose leaves. Four heads are attached to the ciborium, presumably from the 13th century, although they also have features of Romanesque art of the 12th century. Some of these heads could have belonged to the southern ciborium and were placed in their current position during the restoration by Peter Andreas Blix . On the gable is the head of Jesus with glory on the cross. This head is probably the only one sitting in its original place. At the top of the front left column there is a crowned woman's head and at the same height on the right column there is a crowned man's head. These two heads are often simply referred to in the literature as "queen" and "king". Below the right column there is also a monk's head with a hairstyle reminiscent of statues from the 12th century.

On the north side of the saddle roof in the upper left ring is the announcement of the impending birth to Mary by the Archangel Gabriel ( Annunciation of the Lord ). The upper right ring shows the Christ Child in the manger with Mary and Joseph and two shepherd animals next to the manger. At the bottom left is the adoration of the Christ Child by the Three Kings . The lower right ring shows Jesus in the temple, probably because of Brit Mila . On the south side of the gable roof, an angel is depicted in the first ring, who proclaims the good news to the shepherds. In the second ring a shepherd and a shepherd boy are depicted receiving the angel's message. The third ring shows a scene of child murder in Bethlehem . You can see Herod the Great with a sword and two knights who are killing newborn babies. The last ring depicts the flight to Egypt with Mary and the child on a donkey and Joseph with a walking stick.

Replicas

The copy in Minnesota. (This is a photograph artistically alienated with digital image processing.)

A copy of the church is in the Hjemkomst Heritage , Moorhead , Minnesota , USA. It was built in 1997 and 1998. It is the life's work of Guy Paulson, who made the wood carvings for it for 25 years.

literature

  • R. Hauglid: Norwegian stave churches. Dreyer Verlag, Oslo (Norway), 1977, ISBN 82-09-00938-9
  • E. Burger: Norwegian stave churches. History, construction, jewelry. DuMont, Cologne, 1978, ISBN 3-7701-1080-3
  • Y. Sakuma, O. Storsletten: The stave churches of Norway. Masterpieces of Nordic architecture . Bechtermünz-Verlag, Augsburg, 1997, ISBN 3-86047-239-9

Web links

Commons : Hopperstad Stave Church  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Claus Ahrens: The early wooden churches of Europe. Catalog . Konrad Theiss Verlag GmbH, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-8062-1397-6 , p. 295/296
  2. ^ Erich Burger: Norwegian stave churches - construction, history, jewelry . DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 1978, ISBN 3-7701-1080-3
  3. ^ Mari Kollandsrud: Hopperstad stave church, saved at the last minute . Fortidsminneforeningen , 2004
  4. ^ Håkon Christie and Sigrid Christie, The Hopperstad Stave Church . Fortidsminneforeningen , 1997
  5. Website of the church by Hertige Hjemkomst ( memento of the original from October 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed June 25, 2017. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hcscconline.org

Coordinates: 61 ° 4 ′ 39.5 ″  N , 6 ° 33 ′ 59 ″  E