Høre stave church is a stave church

Stave church

A stave church is a medieval wooden church with a post and beam construction related to timber framing. The wall frames are filled with vertical planks. The load-bearing posts have lent their name to the building technique...

 located at Ryfoss in Vang

Vang

Vang is a municipality in Oppland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Valdres. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of "Vang i Valdres"...

 municipality, Valdres

Valdres

Valdres is a traditional district in central, southern Norway, situated between Gudbrandsdal and Hallingdal.Administratively, Valdres belongs to Oppland. It consists of the municipalities Nord-Aurdal, Sør-Aurdal, Øystre Slidre, Vestre Slidre, Vang and Etnedal. The main town in the region is...

, Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. It was built in 1180 and rebuilt around 1820. It is the second church on this location, the previous church was a post church

Post church

Post church is a term for a church building which predates the stave churches and differ in that the corner posts do not reside on a sill but instead have posts dug into the earth. Posts are the vertical, roof-bearing timbers that were placed in the excavated post holes...

 (a church with earth-bound posts standing directly on the ground).

It is dated through a runic inscription to 1180, and through dendrochronology

Dendrochronology

Dendrochronology or tree-ring dating is the scientific method of dating based on the analysis of patterns of tree-rings. Dendrochronology can date the time at which tree rings were formed, in many types of wood, to the exact calendar year...

 to 1179.

There are a number of graves under the church, including those of children.

A runic inscription upon the pulpit reads: Þá, um þat sumar [létu] þeir brœðr Erlingr ok Auðun hôggva till kirkju þessar, er Erlingr ja[rl fe]ll í Niðarósi

Which translates: The brothers Erling and Audun had the timber for this church felled, the summer that Erling Jarl

Erling Skakke

Erling Skakke was a Norwegian Jarl during the 12th century. He was the father of Magnus V, who reigned as King of Norway from 1161 to 1184....

 fell in Nidaros

Nidaros

Nidaros or Niðarós was during the Middle Ages, the old name of Trondheim, Norway . Until the Reformation, Nidaros remained the centre of the spiritual life of the country...

. This refers to the Battle of Kalvskinnet

Kalvskinnet

Kalvskinnet is an area of Trondheim, Norway, southwest in city centre, Midtbyen bordering the river Nidelva in the south. In Sverris saga the place is called akeren. The city is dominated by public offices, including such institutions as the Norwegian University of Science and Technology,...

 in 1179. There are also several other runic inscriptions, and items with runic inscriptions in the church.

It is possible that Duke Skule Bårdsson

Skule Bårdsson

Skule Baardsson or Duke Skule was a Norwegian nobleman and claimant to the royal throne against his son-in-law, King Haakon Haakonsson. Henrik Ibsen's play Kongs-Emnerne is about the dispute between Duke Skule and King Haakon.-Biography:Skule Baardsson was born around 1189...

was married in this church in the 13th century.

External links

• Høre stave church in Stavkirke.org — in Norwegian