Eidsborg Stave Church

Eidsborg stave church was long dated to around 1250, but newer research places it between 1145 and 1155, and is one of the smaller survivors, a single-nave building with an external gallery running around it, its exterior clad in shingles and tarred black. Inside are painted walls from the seventeenth century and a copy of a wooden figure identified as Saint Nicholas, the original now in Oslo; the figure was carried around the lake in a procession each midsummer within living memory of the practice being recorded. The village of Eidsborg lived by quarrying whetstones from the local rock and exporting them across northern Europe from the Viking Age onward, and the Vest-Telemark Museum next to the church covers that trade along with regional folk culture.

History

The earliest written record of the church dates from 1354, but it is estimated to have been built between 1145 and 1155, and charred wood beneath it shows an earlier building on the site. Its walls were painted with murals in the 1600s and a tower was added in the 1700s, and its painted 12th-century figure of St Nicholas, said to have been carried each midsummer to a nearby pond and immersed, is now in the Kulturhistorisk Museum in Oslo (Wikipedia, Eidsborg Stave Church).

What's there

• The shingled exterior - a small tarred church with an external gallery.
• The painted interior - seventeenth-century decoration on the walls.
• The Saint Nicholas figure - a copy of the wooden statue carried in procession.
• The whetstone museum - Vest-Telemark Museum on the local stone trade.

When to go

May to September, when both church and museum are open; the museum keeps longer hours than the church. The Telemark canal boat from Dalen makes a natural combination in summer.

What to expect

The church is very small and the visit short, with seasonal opening. The original Saint Nicholas figure is in Oslo, so what is displayed is a copy. Access is by a winding road up from Dalen.

Nearby

Dalen and the Telemark canal are below; the Haukeli road and Roldal lie west.

Key facts