Replica Fantoft Stave Church, Bergen, Norway

Replica Fantoft Stave Church, Bergen, Norway

 

                                                         Photographed in 2007

 

Fantoft stave church is not included on the official list of Norwegian stave churches because it is a replica. Arsonists burned and almost completely destroyed the original church in the early 1990s.

 

 

 

Only the charred remains of a few staves (supporting posts) were left after the devastating fire. In addition, an altar cross was found in the ashes and was later reconstructed.

 

 

 

With its dark stained wood, its many roofs with dragon heads and surrounded by greenery, approaching the church is quite an awe-inspiring experience. The exterior of the church is an exact copy of the original.

 

 

 

 

As with most stave churches, it has fine carving around the entrance portals.

 

 

 

 

Tall interior staves (posts) provide the support for the elevated central space. Each of these staves is topped by a rectangular surface called a capitol. These interior staves that support the high nave are joined by diagonally crossed beams referred to as St. Andrew’s crosses (St. Andrew was crucified on a diagonal cross) and round arches that rest on the capitals. Above the round arches are the small round window ports that provide the only light that enters the church when the doors are closed. These tiny holes in the clerestory were as important for ventilation as for lighting.

 

The cross was designed by Sven Valevatn in 1990 but was inspired by medieval art.

 

Many stave churches are richly ornamented with biblical scenes painted directly on the walls. The original Fantoft church did have wall paintings but they were not included in the reconstruction. This is the only way that the reconstruction differs in any significant way from the original church.

 

 

 

This small door on the side of the nave is referred to as the leprosy door as people with the disease were not allowed inside the church.

 

Leprosy was an endemic disease of medieval Christendom. The stigma associated with leprosy resulted in the exclusion and denigration of millions of afflicted people for many centuries. In the 13^th century, it is estimated that there were 19,000 leper hospitals operating across Europe as officials tried to grapple with the critical situation. In medieval times, St. George’s hospital was the first one established in Bergen for the care and treatment of those with leprosy. The hospital operated for more than 500 years and is now a museum that presents Norway’s contribution to leprosy research. In 1873, it was a Norwegian, Dr. Armauer Hansen (thus Hansen’s Disease), that identified under a microscope that the cause of the disease was a bacillus and that it was not caused by heredity, a curse or sin.

 

The archives of the leprosy museum in Bergen are part of Unesco’s Memory of the World Program.