The Rough Guide to Norway (Rough Guide to...) by Rough Guides

Author:Rough Guides [Rough Guides]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-24124-318-3
Publisher: Rough Guides Ltd
Published: 2017-03-30T04:00:00+00:00

Hopperstad stave church

Vik • Daily mid-May to mid-June & mid-Aug to mid-Sept 10am–5pm; mid-June to mid-Aug 9am–5pm • 70kr • 57 67 88 40, stavechurch.com • Signed from – and just off Hwy-13 – about 1500m from the Sognefjord

Sloping back from the Sognefjord, the village of VIK is a rather half-hearted affair, its clumps of modern housing stretching out along a wide river valley. Vik’s salad days are, however, recalled by Hopperstad stave church , whose dark-stained timbers date from the twelfth century, maybe even earlier. The church is well cared for today, but in the 1880s it was about to be knocked down when a visiting architect and his antiquarian chum persuaded the villagers to change their minds. The pair promptly set about repairing the church and they did a good job: Hopperstad is one of the best examples of its type, its angular roofing and dragon finials surmounted by a long and slender tower. The interior has its moments too, with a Gothic side-altar canopy, parts of which may have been swiped from France by the Vikings, and a so-called lepers’ window through which the afflicted listened to church services.

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