Medieval Period churches in Nordland

Koen de Vette

The fact that there are only 11 stone churches in Northern-Norway (a huge area covering 113.000 km2) speaks volumes about its history of religion and architecture. Even European cities in central Europe, such as Paris, with a total of 20 stone churches (covering a vastly smaller area), are outnumbering this amount. When we try to make sense of this difference it is of primary importance to acknowledge the geography in the age of expanding Christianity. It started to be of influence during roman times, its origins in the eastern part of the empire. Christianity reached its climax in the Middle Ages, of which the unity of the church was the prime characteristic. The spreading of ‘the true faith’ was accelerating and acknowledged by rulers as a facilitator to unify their domain. Because Norway, particularly Northern-Norway, is located on the outer edge of Europe, it was one of the last areas to be submitted to Christianity. The old, pagan faith was practised for many years after the first attempts to establish Christian faith (999). It is not unreasonable to think that the inhabitants, who were mostly self-sustaining farmers, were a stubborn folk not willing to be influenced by any foreigners who did not know the ways of their culture. Christianity, however, was gaining momentum over the heathen faith, mostly because of political motives. Christian kings from the south, in particular King Olaf, pressured the jarl of the North to pledge their loyalty to this monotheistic faith. Refusing this ‘request’, which in reality was a command, meant that the king would give the chieftain in question a hard time getting by. One by one, the Chieftains were baptized, and those who resisted (for example Red the Sturdy) were rooted out. The culture however, had up to that point not incorporated stone architecture most European countries were applying . Instead, wood was what the Northern people to build all their structures. It was nearly impossible to erect stone churches where knowledge to do so was more than lacking. Eventually some stone churches were built due to the initiative of big estate farmers, who privately invested in the valuable resources and imported experienced stone carvers from the south. Because it required a huge abundance of finances, only a small number of stone churches was erected in the North.