Replica Hopperstad

Replica Hopperstad Stave Church in Moorhead, Minnesota, USA

 

Replica Hopperstad photographed in 2010

In 1998, a replica of Hopperstad Stave Church was dedicated in Moorhead, Minnesota, USA. More than 100 residents of Vik, Norway traveled to Moorhead, to attend the dedication of this replica of their church.

This replica was the dream of Guy Paulson, a man of Norwegian heritage, a deeply religious man and a man who liked wood (probably in his genes – Norwegians love wood). He selected the Hopperstad Church for his replica because of its beauty, its age and because his father was born on a farm across the fjord from Vik in Norway. With the help of family and friends, the replica was constructed rather quickly. But the interior and exterior wood carving, which Guy Paulson undertook himself, took almost five years.

The church is a full scale replica of the church that was built in 1140 in Vik, Norway. However, a few modifications had to be made to meet present day Moorhead city code. The structure had to be built on a reinforced concrete base (the concrete base was covered with a stone veneer to match the appearance of the church in Norway). Two of the three portals were made handicap accessible. Unlike the church in Vik, nails were used in the construction.

Approximately 25,000 shingles were required for the church exterior. Unfortunately, the wooden shingles came as rectangles. To turn them into stave church shingles, three cuts were required: two to make the point and one more to bevel the pointed end. This means that Guy Paulson and three volunteers, working on site, made each of these three cuts 25,000 times.

 

 

Close up of superb carving on the west portal

 

The exterior carvings (done by Guy Paulson) include the dragon heads and crosses on the roof, and the west portal which surrounds the main entrance to the church. This portal features plants which wind upward from the jaws of monsters.

 

 

Mary Barnett (me) and Lin Sedlar under the baldachin

 

The interior carvings include those on the baldachin. The paintings on the ceiling of the baldachin were also done by Guy Paulson.

 

 

Interior staves in the nave with their St. Andrew’s crosses and their arches that rest on capitals.

 

 

Moorhead, a town of about 40,000 inhabitants, is located across the Red River from Fargo, North Dakota. The stave church is about 100 yards from the river. According to Markus Krueger, visitor services coordinator, every spring the church is in danger of flooding when the Red River frequently overflows its banks after the spring thaw. At such times, the church is usually surrounded with piles of sandbags.  

It is said that Mick Jagger has visited the replica. This visit came about, according to local lore, because Mick Jagger’s personal trainer was Norwegian. The morning after they had flown in for a concert in Fargo, the trainer looked out his hotel window and there sat the stave church. It is said that the trainer became very excited and ran all the way over to see if he really saw what he thought he saw. Supposedly, he insisted on a visit by Mick Jagger.

Moorhead was the destination of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Richie Valens when their plane tragically crashed en route many years ago.

 There are two other replicas of stave churches in states a joining Minnesota: a replica of Gol Stave Church in Minot, North Dakota and a replica of Borgund Stave Church in Rapid City, South Dakota. All three states have large populations of people of Norwegian descent.