Grip

Grip Stave Church

Grip Island, More og Romsdal, built ca 1470

 

 

Photo from 2011

 

Grip stave church is located on a tiny island 14 kilometers from Kristiansund, on the west coast of Norway (above Bergen and above Alesund) in the Norwegian Sea. The island is no longer inhabited the year around. At this time, it is an island of summer homes plus a single-nave stave church built around 1470, about 50 years before the Reformation. The structure of the church is similar to the stave churches at Kvernes and Rodven. During the summer, services are held in the church approximately every third week.  In summer, the island can be reached by boat from Kristiansund when the church is open to visitors on a schedule that coincides with boat arrivals.

 

 

 

 

The church is situated in the middle of this tiny island (roughly 200 meters by 100 meters) and smack in the middle of a group of houses. At eight meters above sea level, it is constructed on the highest point of the island. In bygone years, during the frequent storms that raged in the Norwegian Sea, the hardy residents, who were mostly fishermen and their families, sought protection from the storms inside the church.  In a particularly bad storm in 1796, the storm surge was so destructive that it left only the church and a few houses standing.  Thus, the church provided physical security as well as spiritual security. 

 

 

 

The lovely triptych altarpiece dates from 1520 and was carved in Denmark. Legend says that the triptych was a gift from a Danish princess. The Virgin Mary is sculpted in the middle of the triptych and she is flanked by St. Olaf of Norway on one side and by St. Margaret the Virgin on the other. St. Margaret was purported to have had an encounter with the devil in form of a dragon while imprisoned for her failure to renounce Christianity. Perhaps, the animal at her foot in the carving is the alluded to dragon. Part of the other votive ship can be seen at the top of the photo.