Kvernes Stave Church, Averøy, Norway

From ancient times Kvernes has been of great religious and cultural importance at Nordmøre. The excavation of a white phallus stone, a sacred symbol of fertility, supports this fact. The stave church was built around year 1300 and has a rather large main nave (16×7,5 m) with external diagonal props supporting the walls. Several repairs/reconstructions have been carried out. In 1633 the stave-built chancelwas torn down, and a new one erected in log construction. A baptistery was raised at the western end, windows were put in, and the chancel was decorated with painted scenes from the Bible. In the following decade, the nave and baptistery were decorated with acantus paintings. The vicar, Mr. Anders Ericsen (1603-62) paid all those expenses himself.

The king sold the church in 1725, and it was in private ownership until 1872 when it was bought by the parish. A new church was built in 1893, and the stave church was saved from demolition when Fortidsminneforeningen (The Society for the Preservation of Ancient Monuments) bought it in 1896.

References:

stavechurch.com

User Reviews

josep maria soler (3 years ago)
Antiquísima

Steve Landis (3 years ago)
Interesting. Good insight into the lives of those many generations ago.

Jo Lee (3 years ago)
The parking is located at the back of the church, which the access is about 100 meters away from the church, turn right onto Stavkirkevein, parking is at the end of the road. This stave church is unique, with about 5 supporting cross beams on each side. We didn't get to visit inside the church (closed since beginning of September), its exterior itself is beautiful and interesting enough for us, especially when compared to the modern white color church next to it.

HR Lu (3 years ago)
It was in a bureatiful setting. The Church itself was not open. The TripAdvisor gave a location that was 2 miles away from the actual site. Google map pointed toward it's exit only road.

Neil Forrest (4 years ago)
This is a wondrous building, much loved by its stewards, and host to the remarkable carving of the Northern Star. If you like magic, you will be transported by this building.

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Photo from Flickr, copyright Varvara_R

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Trinity Sergius Lavra

The Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius is a world famous spiritual centre of the Russian Orthodox Church and a popular site of pilgrimage and tourism. It is the most important working Russian monastery and a residence of the Patriarch. This religious and military complex represents an epitome of the growth of Russian architecture and contains some of that architecture’s finest expressions. It exerted a profound influence on architecture in Russia and other parts of Eastern Europe.

The Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, was founded in 1337 by the monk Sergius of Radonezh. Sergius achieved great prestige as the spiritual adviser of Dmitri Donskoi, Great Prince of Moscow, who received his blessing to the battle of Kulikov of 1380. The monastery started as a little wooden church on Makovets Hill, and then developed and grew stronger through the ages.

Over the centuries a unique ensemble of more than 50 buildings and constructions of different dates were established. The whole complex was erected according to the architectural concept of the main church, the Trinity Cathedral (1422), where the relics of St. Sergius may be seen.

In 1476 Pskovian masters built a brick belfry east of the cathedral dedicated to the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles. The church combines unique features of early Muscovite and Pskovian architecture. A remarkable feature of this church is a bell tower under its dome without internal interconnection between the belfry and the cathedral itself.

The Cathedral of the Assumption, echoing the Cathedral of the Assumption in the Moscow Kremlin, was erected between 1559 and 1585. The frescoes of the Assumption Cathedral were painted in 1684. At the north-western corner of the Cathedral, on the site of the western porch, in 1780 a vault containing burials of Tsar Boris Godunov and his family was built.

In the 16th century the monastery was surrounded by 6 meters high and 3,5 meters thick defensive walls, which proved their worth during the 16-month siege by Polish-Lithuanian invaders during the Time of Trouble. They were later strengthened and expanded.

After the Upheaval of the 17th century a large-scale building programme was launched. At this time new buildings were erected in the north-western part of the monastery, including infirmaries topped with a tented church dedicated to Saints Zosima and Sawatiy of Solovki (1635-1637). Few such churches are still preserved, so this tented church with a unique tiled roof is an important contribution to the Lavra.

In the late 17th century a number of new buildings in Naryshkin (Moscow) Baroque style were added to the monastery.

Following a devastating fire in 1746, when most of the wooden buildings and structures were destroyed, a major reconstruction campaign was launched, during which the appearance of many of the buildings was changed to a more monumental style. At this time one of the tallest Russian belfries (88 meters high) was built.

In the late 18th century, when many church lands were secularized, the chaotic planning of the settlements and suburbs around the monastery was replaced by a regular layout of the streets and quarters. The town of Sergiev Posad was surrounded by traditional ramparts and walls. In the vicinity of the monastery a number of buildings belonging to it were erected: a stable yard, hotels, a hospice, a poorhouse, as well as guest and merchant houses. Major highways leading to the monastery were straightened and marked by establishing entry squares, the overall urban development being oriented towards the centrepiece - the Ensemble of the Trinity Sergius Lavra.

In 1993, the Trinity Lavra was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

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