Details
Founded: 1154Category: Religious sites in France
Historical period: Birth of Capetian dynasty (France)
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In 650 AD Fromond and some of his companions arrived to Brévands and established an abbey. Fromond became a bishop of Coutances he was died to the abbey in the year 690. In 871 Normans destroyed and looted the abbey. The new church was built in 1154 by Richard de Bohon, the bishop of Coutances. It was again destroyed by fire and the abbey church was rebuilt again with a massive Romanesque nave. It was demolished and rebuilt in 1766. The church was partially destroyed in bombings of summer 1944. Today the abbey church remains.
References:Stavanger Cathedral is Norway's oldest cathedral. Bishop Reinald, who may have come from Winchester, is said to have started construction of the Cathedral around 1100. It was finished around 1150, and the city of Stavanger counts 1125 as its year of foundation. The Cathedral was consecrated to Swithin as its patron saint. Saint Swithun was an early Bishop of Winchester and subsequently patron saint of Winchester Cathedral. Stavanger was ravaged by fire in 1272, and the Cathedral suffered heavy damage. It was rebuilt under bishop Arne, and the Romanesque Cathedral was enlarged in the Gothic style.
In 1682, king Christian V decided to move Stavanger's episcopal seat to Kristiansand. However, on Stavanger's 800th anniversary in 1925, king Haakon VII instated Jacob Christian Petersen as Stavanger's first bishop in nearly 250 years.During a renovation in the 1860s, the Cathedral's exterior and interior was considerably altered. The stone walls were plastered, and the Cathedral lost much of its medieval looks. A major restoration led by Gerhard Fischer in 1939-1964 partly reversed those changes. The latest major restoration of the Cathedral was conducted in 1999. Andrew Lawrenceson Smith is famous for his works here.
