Bergen’s Fantoft Stave Church Norway’s religious history includes its famous wooden buildings that are called stave churches. In the Norwegian language “staver” refers to a wooden framed building with load‐ bearing posts.” Hence the word stave church pertains to the architecture of medieval Christian churches built during Middle Ages. ‐ realscandinavia.com At that time, there were an estimated 1,000 stave churches in Norway; only 28 original churches remain today. The Reformation and the Black Death caused the demise of many stave churches. Stave churches have a unique characteristic of being both Christian, but also evoking Viking symbolism. ‐fjordnorway.com We had the opportunity to visit the Fantoft Stave Church in Bergen. The original church was built in a village called Fortun in Sogn. It was built in 1150. The village is in the west of Norway, located between one of the longest fjords in the world—the Sognefjord—and the highest mountain crossing in Norway— Galdøpiggen. Threatened by demolition, consul in Bergen, Fredrik George Gade, moved the church in pieces in 1881 to Fana near Bergen. The distance between Fortun and Bergen is approximately 181 miles. The Fantoft Stave Church is located approximately 3 miles from the center of the city. ‐fjordnorway.com ‐en.visitbergen.com Because of the move, it is not listed as an “original” church among those stated as such in Norway. The original Fortun church looks nothing like the Fantoft church. This is because “the tower, of the 17th century and the log‐work chancel, were not part of the consul’s purchase, and discarded. What they were after were the parts that were constructed around the mid‐12th century in the traditional Norwegian “stave” technique: where the load‐bearing logs are all placed vertically. Fortun’s interior was of Borgund type, where the internal staves were tied together, to give the sense of a triforium story inside. The lantern over the main nave roof, the distinctive dragon finials, and two‐story chancel were in fact copied from the epynomic church at Borgund.” ‐ stainedglassattitudes.wordpress.com An arsonist on June 6, 1992 destroyed the church in Bergen. The Fantoft church was meticulously rebuilt when it was moved. Rebuilding was completed in 1997. Read‐thevintagenews.com for a complete account of the incident. This photo program gives you a tour of the walk to, the grounds and inside Bergen’s Fantoft Stave Church. Sources: http://realscandinavia.com/the‐stave‐churches‐of‐norway/, https://www.fjordnorway.com/things‐to‐do/culture‐and‐heritage/stave‐churches, http://www.expeditioninsider.com/educational/all‐about‐the‐stave‐churches‐of‐norway/, http://www.fortunsdalen.no/starteng.html, https://en.visitbergen.com/things‐to‐do/fantoft‐stave‐church‐p824893, https://www.visitnorway.com/places‐to‐go/fjord‐norway/bergen/listings‐bergen/fantoft‐ stave‐church/2582/, https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/04/07/1000‐year‐old‐church‐rebuilt‐after‐it‐was‐burnt‐down‐by‐arsonists/ and https://stainedglassattitudes.wordpress.com/2018/01/13/black‐metal‐church‐burnings‐a‐historical‐view/. acuri.net John R. Vincenti Bergen’s Fantoft Stave Church .