Historic Churches 2018

BCD SPECIAL REPORT ON HISTORIC CHURCHES 25 TH ANNUAL EDITION 37 new fashions, people and religions. Worn by use and bearing the patina of age and the accumulating evidence of past repairs, each one is unique. Constructed in the 12th century, Urnes stave church is the oldest of its surviving siblings, although according to archaeological evidence at least three earlier churches had stood on its site. The building’s elevated nave is supported by a total of 14 staves, and is one of the most elaborately decorated of its kind. The romanesque-style building still boasts some of the original features from the church that stood on the site before it, including the richly designed portal and Christian-medieval carvings on the walls. Dubbed the ‘Urnes-style’, this is a viking art-form featuring intertwined animals, heavily influenced by celtic art. It is currently the only stave church to be listed as a world heritage site. THE STAVE CHURCH PRESERVATION PROGRAMME The cultural significance of stave churches is well recognised, and they are among the oldest and best examples of Scandinavian wooden architecture. Nevertheless, years of wear and tear and a lack of knowledge on appropriate maintenance resulted in these buildings falling into disrepair. The Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage assumed responsibility for their preservation in 2001 by implementing The Stave Church Preservation Programme, part of an NOK 130 million (c £12 million) government- funded scheme to protect Norway’s historic buildings. The aim of the programme, which ended in 2015, was to avoid losing vital parts of Scandinavia’s architectural heritage. The focus was therefore on preventative maintenance. Conservation principles were closely followed throughout, but first and foremost was the need to authentically repair each church to a standard that can be easily maintained in future. Crucially, this approach applied not only to the building’s structure and fabric, but to its art and interior décor too. Due to the churches’ structural and visual differences, the strategy required to repair each building had to be flexible, depending on the extent of additional damage uncovered after works began. At the start of each project, a thorough assessment was conducted and a plan devised to meet each building’s repair and preservation requirements. An important part of the conservation plan was to repair damaged fabric diligently and inobtrusively, rather than fully restoring it back to its original state. Indeed, determining the original state of any stave church would be nearly impossible due to the many alterations and repair works undertaken over the centuries. The key to the project’s success was the employment of skilled craftspeople who used their specialised observation and technical skills to repair and preserve each building as required while retaining as much of its visible history and original material as possible. They identified techniques to emulate the building methods used during original construction, sourced authentic materials and replicated original tools where appropriate. Dendrochronology was used to determine the age of the timbers, cross- referencing the tree ring pattern of timber samples of a known age against samples from the stave church. As the thickness of each growth-ring varies according to the growing conditions in each year, the grain provides a chronological finger print, and if the outermost rings are present in the timber, it is possible to calculate accurately which year the tree was felled. Conservators were often able to pinpoint the exact age of the wood in different parts of the building, which was useful in helping to determine exactly which kinds of materials and building techniques Urnes Stave Church is located in Ornes, in the municipality of Luster, Sogn og Fjordane county, west Norway. (Photo: Hans Olav Stegarud)