Lom

Lom Stave Church, ca 12^th century, Valley of Gudbrandsdal, Norway

 

 

 

Photographed in 2010

 

The stave church is located in the center of Lom and is still a parish church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, St. Olav and John the Baptist. The high steeple can be seen from every point in the town.

 

Lom is situated in Gudbrandsdal Valley, which is Norway’s longest valley and also, a scenic marvel. For centuries the valley has been the main trade corridor between the north and the south of the country.

 

 

 

In the 17^th century, a horizontal log-built addition was added. Shortly after that, the church again underwent alteration and was converted to a cruciform shape. At some point, the ambulatory (covered walkway around the church) was removed.

 

 

At the same time that the church was converted to a cruciform shape, the tower with tall, thin spires was added.

 

 

 

In the 20^th century, it was discovered that a roof ridge top with a dragon head and a cross dated from the original church construction in the 12^th century. Since it was the only such roof decoration still remaining, it was decided to remove it and place it in the Folk Museum in Lillehammer for safe keeping - a copy was made for the roof of the church.

 

 

 

This is an original portal from the 12^th century and is now located on the north transept.

 

In contrast to many stave churches, much is known about the early period of this church because of an unusual amount of historical documentation pertaining to the church. Lom, originally built as a Catholic church as were all stave churches, was richly decorated during the medieval period with religious art, textiles and silver objects. During the Reformation, out went artwork, sacred vessels, triptychs, etc. Some were thrown into the river – others were stolen. For many years, the church interior was quite bleak.

 

However, by the 1600s church decoration began to reappear. Painted decorations on the walls of the nave and ceiling of the choir appeared as early as 1608 (a scene of Christ’s baptism was painted on the choir ceiling that year). Local inhabitants donated funds to pay for these decorations. Paintings by Eggert Munch were added in the early 1700s. An elaborately carved pulpit and chancel arch were installed in 1793. The pews are painted Norwegian blue.

 

The lighting in the interior of Lom is lovely (on a sunny day). Most stave churches are quite dark or else they have added windows that are not very well placed or maybe too big and the sun tends to glare in to the point of blinding / obstructing one’s view of certain parts of the interior. Here, the windows seem to be extremely well placed and the sun kind of flows in with a warm glow.

 

During the 1940 Norwegian Campaign, Germans prisoners of war were held in a camp in Lom. The town was bombed twice by the Luftwaffee in April 1940.