Qualla: Rodven Stave Church

Rodven Stave Church: Introduction

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Frode Inge Helland, CC BY 2.5. Once a year, on Olsok -- the eve of St. Olav's Day -- a worship service is held inside a brown wooden church in the village of Rodven. The congregation fits comfortably: the building seats about a hundred. What makes the occasion remarkable is not the size of the gathering but the age of the walls around it. Rodven Stave Church was built in the twelfth century, and the ground beneath it held an even older church before that. For more than eight hundred years, this small structure on the Romsdal coast has refused to fall down, though the elements have tried their best.

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Image: Frode Inge Helland | CC BY 2.5

Rodven Stave Church: Timber Upon Timber

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Matthias Heil, CC BY-SA 3.0 no. The church that stands today is not the first on this site. Archaeological excavations led by Hakon Christie in 1962-1963 uncovered postholes from an earlier structure, confirming that a previous church occupied the same ground -- likely built during the 1100s as an annex subordi...

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Image: Matthias Heil | CC BY-SA 3.0 no

Rodven Stave Church: Storms and Stubborn Repairs

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Erik den yngre, CC BY-SA 4.0. Around 1600, the old choir was torn down and rebuilt three meters wider, bringing it to the same width as the nave. The exterior corridors that once encircled the building were removed during this renovation. A sacristy was added to the north side of the choir in 1651. Then, in 1...

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Image: Erik den yngre | CC BY-SA 4.0

Rodven Stave Church: Retired but Not Forgotten

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Halvard : from Norway., Public domain. By 1900, the parish was reorganizing. Holm parish was established in 1901, and three new churches in the dragestil style replaced the region's medieval buildings. Architect Jens Zetlitz Monrad Kielland designed a new chapel just forty meters north of the stave church, across the ...

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Image: Halvard : from Norway. | Public domain

Rodven Stave Church: What Lies Beneath the Floor

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Halvard : from Norway., CC BY-SA 3.0. Christie's 1962-1963 excavation did more than confirm the existence of an earlier church. Beneath the floor, archaeologists discovered an abundance of artifacts -- fragments of daily life and devotion accumulated over centuries of continuous use. The earliest historical records m...

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Image: Halvard : from Norway. | CC BY-SA 3.0