User:Lgilbe11/Heddal Stave Church

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Heddal Stave Church (Bokmål Heddal stavkirke, Nynorsk Heddal stavkyrkje) is a triple nave stave church located at Heddal in Notodden municipality, Norway.

The church is one of the 28 surviving stave churches in Norway and is considered to be the largest of the stave churches. It was constructed entirely out of wood at the beginning of the 13th century, and was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. After the reformation, the church was in a very poor condition, and a restoration took place during 1849–1851. However, because the restorers lacked the necessary knowledge and skills, another restoration was required in the 1950s. The interior was marked by the period after the Lutheran Reformation in 1536–1537 and is for a great part a result of the restoration that took place in the 1950s.

Heddal Stave Church is a popular tourist attraction, and is open to the public in the summer season. The church is still in use, and remains a popular place to get married. In the 19th century, it became one of the first stave churches to be featured in a scholarly publication, described and depicted in one of Johannes Flintoe's illustrations.

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Architecture

Made from Scots pine wood, Heddal Stave Church is supported by load-bearing staves (wooden poles) and sits on a foundation of stone. To strengthen its massive structure, interior staves are alternated between short ones versus full-length ones. As a hybrid church, Heddal's nave resembles both Borgund style churches with their towering central plan, as well as the Kaupanger group's long arcaded naves: as seen in Heddal's chancel, which has six free masts. Although the chancel remains, its pillars were removed along with their inscribed texts.

Outside of the church's façade were doorways with ribbon-interlaced portals. Four of which remain fairly intact. However, one of these portals, aside from being a line drawing, no longer exists. Initially, these portals acted as a thematic separation between the inside - which resembles the beginning of Christianity, versus the outside - recalling the end of paganism. Unlike the facades of older stave churches, which have pagan dragons occupying higher position than their Christian counterpart, Heddal employs Christian symbols at a more elevated level since it was built after Christianity's influence had spread throughout Norway.

Typically, inside the structure, between the months of October to May, the church is heated up at around 5 °C, using a continuous mild heating. This kind of heating is done for conservation purposes. On the interior of the church's chancel and nave were found the remainders of medieval wall paintings, overpainted with 17th century décor. By 2008 - 2010, the distempered paintings were refurbished to there original medieval designs, similar in style to those in Torpo - showing a connection between their figurative and decorative forms. Although a more thorough survey of the church's archeological site has not yet been conducted, notwithstanding its uprooting and restorations, there may still be some remnants of its original cultural layers beneath the cathedral.

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