Bodin Church

Bodin Church is one of the oldest buildings in this area; it was built around 1240. Today, it is hard to tell how the original church did look like. The sacred house was put down and rebuilt several times; first it was made out of wood which is a disapearing material. At the end of the 12th century, the first churches were made out of stones. 


 
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Some signs inside the church indicate that it has maybe some Catholic heritage. First of all there is an arched gateway (picture 1). Secondly, there are several crosses put in the stones or the concrete (picture 2). 
The ground plan of Bodin Church is a very unusual one; it seems like if there is one part of a cross missing. (picture 3). A hypothesis is that the ground was to unstable to build walls on it, so it was left out. 

 picture1










picture 2 


            __
         /      \
        I        I
 ......I         I_ _ _ 
:      I                  I
: ...  I          _ _ _I
       I        I
       I_ _ _ I                picture 3



Cultural Heritage
In Bodin Church there are some parts pointing on heritage. For example the benches. At the very end of the benches' rows is an original one, and every bench was constructed according to this one. The unique part is that there are doors at each end of a bench. 
It is common for Norway that there is a ship hanging from the ceiling. This is a reminder on how important a ship was and is for travelling and shipping. Bodin Church has this famous ship Anna Karoline, which was the main ship travelling between Bodo and the Lofoten Islands. The ships in churches are always sailing towards the east - Christ is coming back from the east and they are going to welcome him. 
Currently, some wooden figures are restored. They were made in the 15th century and it is very difficult to find the original colours of them. There is now the question if it is necessary to find the original colours at all. Or is it just a wast of time? Is it important to find the old formula - isn't the new one better?

3. Tjøtta International War Cemetery

Tjøtta International War Cemetery

    First stop on our field-trip was not far away from Sandnessjøen. We visited International War Cemetery. This place is literally in the middle of nowhere. You are driving through nature and sometimes you can see houses or huts, but in that place you can find big field with straight column and memorial plaques.
 This place should remind prisoners of war who tragically died on 27 November 1944 while they were transported on ship Riegel to the south. This ship was bombed by british planes, because they though the ship carriages tanks and other weapons. Around 2 600 people dead. This ship - the ruins of it were on the coast till seventies and no one took care. But not only soldiers from this ship are burried here. Also other prisoners who died in camps in horrible conditions (mainly Russian soldiers arrested by Germans). We also heard that around this cemetery is strange atmosphere. During cold war Norwegian government wanted to replace all graves and bodies of death Russian soldiers on one place - here in Tjøtta. It was quite controversial topic.

 For me it was interesting moment, when I realized, that still there are historical facts, which are difficult and it is hard to cope with them. I mean especially topics from second world war and it is not case only of one country. Here we can see, that one of the biggest tragedy is almost forgotten. But for me is important, that those people who died and they are buried here, they were normal people like us today. It is always governments who are fighting - it can be for power, for money, for religion.... But those soldiers sometimes didn't have any choice, they had to go to war and I think we should honor their memory regardless of political situation.

 

The Russian War Cemetery

The small island Tjøtta lies in the municipality of Alstahaug in the region of Nordland, Norway. It is surrounded by beautiful nature; fjords and mountains are old friends. In this fairytale-like landscape, the interested observer can find something odd (s)he probably doesn’t expect when exploring Norway: a huge graveyard. A graveyard without any graves…

The Tjøtta Russian War Cemetery marks a catastrophe in the Norwegian coast that took place in year 1944. At that time, the Norwegian vessel “MS Rigel”, built in 1924, was occupied by German military to transport allied war prisoners. On its way to South-Norway and finally coming from Bodø’s harbour, this ship with its 2838 persons on board was accidentally bombed by the British Supermarine Seafire plane-fighters, because it appeared to be an enemy troopship. On this cold day of the 27^th November 1944 near the town Sandnesjøen, 2571 persons lost their lives.

The cemetery remembers and honours the causalities, of whom the majority could not be identified anymore. Metal plates connected with the stone-walls remind one of the death’s names. During the Second World War, soviet prisoners lived and died everywhere in Norway, so the government decided to gather the bodies in one place which was officially “chosen in cooperation with the Soviet Union”. The wreck had been carried away, but on the other side of the isle a monument remembers the whole tragedy. Further south, you can also find the Tjøtta International War Cemetery.

Far away from the Norwegian government and any city-life, a lonesome place without any road signs had been chosen. It feels strange to not be able to see their graves, but to directly walk above them. The boat mostly hosted soviet prisoners from Poland, Russia, Ukraine and Serbia, but on board were also Norwegians and Germans. Only 267 of them survived.

Nordlands Museum

Hello everybody!

Last tuesday (November 17th) we start the new Adventure Knowlege course: Experience of Architecture, Art and Cultural Heritage. We started the day with a trip to get to know more about Bodo's history and we made a tour in Bodo sentrum. We saw many buildings such as the Nordland Museum, Bodo's cathedral, the post-office, Bodo Kommune, the railway and many more. A tower marks the most important buildings in town. Apart from that, all those buildings have some similarities, such as the windows, the main entrance and the roof, to mention some.

Nordlands Museum

We saw many buildings, but the most interesting for me was the Nordland Museum, probably because we stayed there longer than in other places. The Nordland Museum is located in Bodo Sentrum. The building is yellow and it has big windows with some details in the boarders. The main entrance is visible and  the construction has a Swiss style. In this museum you can find a lot of information about Bodo's history, but mainly in Norwegian. In the inside you can find pictures and illustrated photos, that makes the visit more visual and therefore, more enjoyable. It is a bright place, which makes the museum more attractive. There is a good use of the space: In the lowest floor there is a fishbowl with different species; In the first floor there are some informative panels with some pictures; Finally, in the second floor everything is more visual, here you can find a model of Bodo city before the attack in 1940, after the attack and how it looks like nowadays. Also, you can see the tools that the hospitals used and some daily objects that help us to understand how the norwegian society was in the 19th-20th century. Apart from that, there is a film with subtitles in english that you can watch.

This trip has been meaningful for me, because I can relate with my studies (education). For example, the film is quite interesting for children. It is an appropriate way for turning on the interest of the puppils. Furthermore, in the film Bodo's history was explained in a positive way and that is really important in education: The children should join the school activities with good and positive feelings and this way their motivation for learning will increase. However, the language is an important factor to take into account. For example, the film contained a lot of information and we had to see the film and read the subtitles at the same time, so it was difficult to follow the text and the photos at the same time. In adition, almost everything was in norwegian, so if you let the children to explore the place and learn by their own, the puppils should know Norwegian. In our case, the best option was to make a tour with a guide, who explains everything in a common language. To sum up, the museum was really interesting and I liked the idea of focus the history in a positive way.

Bodin Church

Day 2, 18.11.2015

The Bodin Church is one of the oldest buildings in Bodø. It is located a little bit outside of the town centre. It is said that people come to worship at this place for almost thousand years. The church was torn down and rebuilt several times. But people believe that it is built around 1240 A.D.. The place where the church is located served even in earlier times as a place to worship the old gods. The architecture of the church is quite different to younger churches. Maybe it the it is today because it was rebuilt so often. 

Very striking is the altar-piece. It is quite big and made from wood. It is typical for the period, the baroque age. In the center of the altar-piece the story of Christ is told: the last supper in the centre, the crucifixion above, the burial at the bottom and above it all: Christ ascending into heaven. In early years the ceiling of the church was very low so the people could not se Christ ascending into heaven. There was literally a hole in the ceiling because the altar-piece was so tall.

On the same level as the last supper is Moses and his brother Aaron and on the next level is St. Paul and St. Peter. On top of them there are the four evangelists. On the extreme right and left are Adam and Eve to one side, and the baptism of Christ on the other. The date of the altar-piece is supported by two mermaids, 1670. There is also a record who gave it, and that it was painted by Gotfried Ezekiel, a german painter, in 1745. It is said that at that time no one in Nordland was able to paint like that. The baptism font was designed by Oscar Bodøgaard, a famous local artist who also restored the altar-piece in 1964.

I really liked the visit at the Bodin Church. It was very impressive to hear that the church was rebuilt several times, and that it was a worhshiped place for a long time either for the Norse gods or Christianity. I think it is very important to preserve such places to be able to teach history to our children and keep up their cultural interests. We should never forget where we come from. History is a important teacher for the future.

2. Bodin church

Bodin church was our next stop with course. This church is probably almost eight hundred years old and it is one of the oldest churches in Nordland. We had really interesting visitation and heard a lot from history of this church. During our tour I was thinking that finally I found place in Bodø which reminds me in some kind of way my home.
 I come from the Prague - the capital of Czech Republic. My country is one of the smallest but actually quite different in compare with Norway. Especially when we are talking about churches and historic monuments, there are plenty of them (because everything is so close and together on small area). So for me was actually interesting realize how much I am used to see historic monuments every day without deeper thinking. Now I realized that many people are passing these monuments every day ("another old building"). But actually I don't know too much about them.
 I had the same feeling approximately one year ago when I started to work with migrants in Prague. I also planned walks through the city and talking about main historical monuments for them. But for me was surprising, that a lot information people know, even though they are born in another country. Also they surprised me with questions to which I didn't know answer. So this visit reminds me, that next time I should rise my head and watch carefully things around me.

The Louis-Philippe Room

The Louis-Philippe Room contains the oldest interior furnishing in whole Norway. You can find it in the cultural center in Bodø, which initiated the restauration process of the furniture and the mural paintings in 2009. The room is entitled after the French King Louis Philippe who came to Bodø in 1795 as a refugee of the revolutionary government in Paris. In the time he stayed in Bodø he lived in the Bodin parsonage which was decorated and painted in the rococo style. The wall painting has been removed from its original room into a smaller one, so the paintings do not have their original size anymore. The first restauration process has not been done very thoughtfully so that the paintings started to deform and got stained. That is why the second project to preserve this important cultural heritage started in 2010. Since there is barely qualified staff in Norway they got help from Polish and German students who took over the process. Since the restauration process is very long the room is still not open for the public today but it is planned to reopen it for visitors for the 200-year-old anniversary of Bodø. The room itself was really beautiful and I totally support to preserve such cultural heritage. The effort to restaurate paintings like that is enormous and the students working on it did a great job. Finding and reproducing the exact colors that have been used originally takes a lot of time and research. The atmosphere was great, like being in another time. All the details are beautiful. I really hope that the room will last very long, since the conditions to obtain the wall paintings are not perfect in Norway. The humidity is quiet high in Bodø, which could cause another deformation. But removing it from its original location is not a possibility either.

Bodin church

During my stay in Norway I got to visit many Norwegian churches. Be it a church in Bergen, another in Alesund, Bodø Domkirke, the ice cathedral in Tromø, the famous Nidaros cathedral in Trondheim or one of the rare stave churches in the Stavanger region. This week it was time to see Bodin church, which I only spotted several times before, but never had the chance to catch a glimpse inside.

Built around 1240 in the quarter called “Bodøsjøen”, this catholic church plays a crucial role in the life of any catholic Bodø-inhabitant. Until 1886, the founding year of Saltstraumen church, every catholic had to take the risk of travelling to Bodin church in order to get baptised. People even crossed the fjords, and several died. The local parson told us everything about the fountain built of marble from Fauske, the ancient worth of a candle, the altar with its four-dimensional evening meal, the german church painter Gottfried Ezechiel and the hanging church. I listened very carefully and gave my best not to forget any detail, but there was something which occupied my mind: Is there any difference between “the” church in Norway and “the” church in Germany? And, if there is, do I evaluate it as a reasonable difference?

Regardless of my own faith, I got the subjective impression that Norwegian churches have a greater impact on the Norwegian youth than it is the case in Germany. In contrary to Germany, Norwegian churches offer evening meals with a local rock band or realise guided tours to famous churches with employees who have tattoos and wear black bracelets from a music festival they just participated in.

I don’t know about the relationship between state and church in Norway, but those two value-creating keystones try to kept separated in Germany. I myself admit to have critical and reflective thoughts about the churches’ goals, religious cults within peer-groups, about current church-debates (be it the new open-minded Pope in Rome or the german bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, who misappropriated church-funds on a big scale), but even on atheism. To be a social worker in Germany means to choose your future employer whose institution will be part of the church in 50% of all cases, whether you like it or not. Is it a form of discrimination if you are automatically excluded from all job candidates because of your personal belief? Is “faith” considered to be something you can act out within your own inner privacy, without feeling the urge to defend your beliefs in public? As those church-institutions search for qualified employees, is it, in the same way, condemnable for a social institution offering pregnancy counselling to look for a female candidate for the team, because women are considered to be more empathic in the whole thematic and might identify with the institution’s values in a different way than a man could do? Or is it a vital right nobody should take away from them?

This should be discussed from now on. Maybe I should have asked the local parson about his opinion. Or I will write a letter to the church of the flying spaghetti monster…