Urnes Stave Church

On the eastern shores of the Lusterfjord in Western Norway lies Urnes Stave Church. It's a wooden church and there are plenty of those inscribed on the list. But stave churches in general and Urnes in particular are distinctly Norwegian and clearly a world apart from the many flavors of wooden churches you find in e.g. Eastern Europe.

Urnes itself isn't a large church. It's a small church that can host maybe 20 (?) people, mostly the family of the local noble as it was a private church belong to the noble's estate. I would assume the local population could join occasionally. But that wouldn't have swelled the ranks significantly. The area was never densely settled (and it isn't to this day). The rough climate and terrain greatly limited the space available for agriculture and with it the population the region could support. Side note: There is a reason the Viking went for raids so much.

Urnes claim to fame is that it's the oldest original surviving stave church in Norway. And that it features original Viking wood carvings combining Viking and Christian mythology. 

In addition, its location is stunning. The fjord, the mountains, ... It feels as if the whole landscape was composed to create a truly unique site.

Norway has more stave churches on offer. Near Oslo there is one shown in the folk museum. Probably, the most internationally known one is Heddal, which I visited with Randi and Svein. You pass it when …

My husband and our daughter drove to Urnes to see the Stove Church. We spent the night across the fjord from Urnes at a hotel in Wallaker. Took the ferry ride across and visited the great sight of the church. We had a reason to want to see it as our last name is Urness. The cemetery around the church had many headstones with the name Urnes on them. The name got changed from Urnes to Urness when the grandparents came to the US. It was well worth the trip. We wanted to find out more about our heritage but couldn't find anyone to talk to.

I visited Urnes in November 1983 primarily to see the iconic carvings i'd studied in an old Larousse art history book. I had no idea of the difficulty in getting there from Oslo but guessed at the nearest train stop on the Bergen rail line and hitchhiked to a town in the right direction. In Solvorn by lunchtime the next day I found myself on the last ferry across to Urnes. The wonders of the exterior almost made a night in a boatshed along the edge of the fjord worthwhile. Although the church had been closed to tourists when i was there, a death in the village (and a lift back to town with the local builder who turned out to be a contracted gravedigger) allowed me to gain access the next morning. Highly recommended. I doubt it would be so beautiful if it were not so isolated.

After a long and hot summer trip to Greece I decided to wind down for a couple of days in my beautiful neighboring country Norway. I had already visited most of the World Heritage Sites in Scandinavia but not yet the Stave Church of Urnes, a fact that had annoyed me for some time. So it was now high time to “tick it off” as my 146th site. Once in Oslo I embarked on the Bergen-train and traveled up the mountains to Myrdal where I hopped off in order to take the world-famous Flåm-banan down to the fjords and here catch a connecting bus to Sogndal.

Flåm-banen is a major tourist attraction in itself and as the train slowly makes its 860 meters way down to the fjords, through tunnels and mountainsides, you can enjoy a wonderful view including mountains, waterfalls and small villages. In Flåm you can catch ferries to Bergen and other destinations along the Norwegian coast.

My bus trip from Flåm to Sogndal took about 2 hours and on it’s way it passed through the 24,5 km long Laerdal-tunnel, the longest tunnel in the world. At the time I was ignorant enough not to be aware of it’s existence and certainly not of it’s length so after some 15 minutes of traveling through the tunnel I was beginning to wonder whether this was a surreal dream where I was captured in the mountain!??? Despite my worst worries the bus did get out and arrived in Sogndal and …

The world heritage sites I like best are those that require some effort to get to. That's also the case with Urnes: a flight, a local bus, a hired car and a small ferry (and 4 hours) took me there.

The Urnes church lies high on the slopes. Because of its relatively small size, it cannot be seen from below. After a steep climb, you are rewarded by this sight that is both very familiar (I've seen lots of pictures) and striking (its almost perfect shape).

Visitors to the site (and they are relatively numerous in summer) can go inside the church with a guide. An explanation is given about its history. That it has been rebuilt several times but that there are some original elements left. And that it is still used as a church, once a month during the summer months.