Røldal Stave Church, Norway
by Justin Kroesen and Kaja Merete Hagen
Figure 1. The stave church in its landscape setting (photo Justin Kroesen).
The village of Røldal in southern Norway is dramatically set in a remote mountain valley along one of the ancient roads between the east and west of the country (Fig. 1). Here we find one of Norway’s twenty-seven famous “stave churches”, medieval churches built of wood. The chancel and nave of Røldal stave church were most probably erected during the first half of the thirteenth century [1]. In and from the church, a remarkable wealth of historical furnishings and artefacts is documented and preserved that surpasses that of most other Norwegian village churches. While most objects from the Protestant period remain in the church, a number of medieval pieces are now kept in museums in Bergen and Oslo. Together, they form one of the country’s most complete interior ensembles, reflecting the church’s remarkable and somewhat mysterious history, both before and after the Lutheran Reformation (Fig. 2).
Figure 2. Church interior seen from the west (photo Justin Kroesen).
As is so often the case, the oldest medieval object kept in situ in the church is the stone baptismal font. It can be dated to the time the building was erected and consists of a cylindrical bowl supported on a low foot (the cubical pedestal is new). The most important medieval artwork preserved in the church is the wooden crucifix from c. 1250, that hangs above the chancel arch (Fig. 3). Its current height is 157 cm, and the corpus is 89 cm tall [2]. The Christ figure combines aspects of the triumphant Christus regens type with the Christus patiens type, that depicts the suffering Christ. He is crowned as a King and his body is upright in a standing rather than a hanging position. At the same time, his eyes are closed, evoking the moment of his death, and his head tilts slightly towards his chest. Other more developed aspects include the naturalistic rendering of anatomical details and the fact that his feet are placed over each other and pierced by one nail.
Figure 3. The crucifix, c. 1250, hanging over the chancel arch (photo Justin Kroesen).
Although written documents are lacking, there is strong indirect evidence that the Røldal crucifix was worshipped as miraculous and that a pilgrimage evolved around it during the Middle Ages. This can be inferred from several post-Reformation sources that describe attempts to curb this traditional practice. The cult concentrated on St John’s Eve, June 24, which was also known as Midsummer or ‘Jonsok’, when the Christ figure began to sweat. The crucifix was then lowered from its exalted position and put up in front of the altar enabling the faithful to wipe off the moisture from the Christ figure with cloths that were pressed against their injuries. In 1622, almost a century after the Reformation, the bishop of Oslo, Nils Glostrup, got notified by a nearby priest that this “great idolatry”, that no doubt had originated during the Middle Ages, continued to take place in the church.
In his Norrigia illustrata, a study on the history, nature, and geography of Norway, published in 1651, Jens Lauridsen Wolff described the practice as follows: “It is told that in the church of Røldal, in the deanery of Stavanger, where no service is held except for once a year, and that is on the feast of St John, there is a crucifix that emits some fluid, which the sick who come at that time apply on the part of their body where the injury is, after which they are healed” [3]. Over the years, numerous attempts were made to end the cult connected to the crucifix in Røldal. In 1644, several years before Wolff’s account, the bishop of Bergen forbade the pilgrimage, but apparently to no avail; in 1737, the bishop of Kristiansand made a renewed attempt, but it failed again. Even though the cult gradually declined both in pilgrims and income, the miraculous crucifix continued to attract believers. This lasted until as late as the nineteenth century, as becomes clear from a report by the dean of Stavanger, Ole Nicolai Løberg, written in 1835. The practice seems to have finally ceased in the 1840s, more than three hundred years after the Reformation in Norway was introduced, in 1537.
Pilgrims who had been healed made votive donations to the church of Røldal, such as crutches and canes that had become redundant and ex-votos in the shape of the limbs that had been cured. They were left behind as tokens of gratitude by those who had been healed, and to other pilgrims who came after they served as “proof” for the veracity of their beliefs. Over the centuries, ex-votos kept accumulating until they filled the interior of the building. A diary written by Wilhelm Frimann Koren Christie in 1822 states that here “we find plenty (...) of wooden arms, feet, hands that the healed had left behind as a testimony to their miraculous healing” [4] and describes how the objects were crammed into the corners of the small wooden church. Given that the church was significantly smaller that its present size – the nave was extended on the west side in 1844 – the interior must have been packed with images and objects. From Nicolay Nicolaysen’s study Norske fornlevninger, it can be inferred that many ex-votos still lingered in the church during the 1860s [5].
Figure 4. Ex-votos, date unknown, now at the University Museum of Bergen (photo University Museum of Bergen/Olav Espevoll).
Four limb-shaped ex-votos were finally transferred to the Bergens Museum (now the University Museum of Bergen) in 1895 (Fig. 4). These are one leg, one arm and two forearms with hands, in addition to a knee protector and handgrips that had been used by pilgrims who crawled to the church (inv. no. B 5141/MA 302). In the museum’s protocols of 1895, it is stated that “the date of these objects cannot be determined; probably they are rather young, but their shape is entirely medieval” [6]. The Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo possesses a further ex-votos from Røldal, in the shape of a leg (inv. no. C2311) (Fig. 5). This was recently dated using the Carbon-14 method, showing a 95.4% probability that the tree from which it was won was felled during the period 1322-1410 [7]. This result further corroborates the assumption that the cult of the wonderworking crucifix of Røldal started long before the Reformation.
Figure 5. Wooden leg, ex-voto, fourteenth century?, now at the Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo (photo Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo).
Every year, coins were collected after the ceremony and over the centuries many offerings have been made by grateful pilgrims to the crucifix and the church. In the church accounts of the seventeenth century, several donations are mentioned. The parish also sold wax lights to pilgrims, which meant an additional source of income. In 1659, Røldal parish owned 490 riksdaler in the bank, which was a considerable capital. These incomes help explain why the pilgrimage survived so many prohibitions after the Reformation [8]. The donations may also be the reason why the church became so richly furnished over the centuries, both before and after the Reformation. While most Protestant furnishings are still found in the church, a range of medieval objects were transferred to museums in Bergen (Bergens Museum, now the University Museum of Bergen) and Oslo (Universitetets Oldsaksamling, now the Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo) during the nineteenth century.
Figure 6. Painted altar frontal, around 1340, now at the University Museum of Bergen (photo University Museum of Bergen/Svein Skare).
In 1845, Bergens Museum acquired its first artwork from Røldal, a small painted altar frontal dating from c. 1340 (inv. nr. MA 7) (Fig. 6) [9]. The central section shows the Calvary group under a pointed gable with crockets. On the sides are four Passion scenes: the Scourging of Christ and the Carrying of the Cross on the left side, and the Harrowing of Hell and the Resurrection on the right. The frontal originated around one century after the miraculous crucifix and even more strongly stresses Christ’s suffering: a crown of thorns has replaced the royal crown, his body is more dramatically curved and his head has fallen further down to the chest. Aspects shared by both depictions include Christ’s slender body in a hunched pose with accentuated rib case, his closed eyes, narrow nose, golden beard, golden curly hair, and his similarly placed feet.
The panel’s almost square shape (109 x 115 cm) suggests that it belonged to a side altar in the nave rather than to the high altar in the chancel [10]. The classical position for side altars in this period was on both sides of the chancel arch, in front of the east wall of the nave. In this position, perfectly visible to the layfolk, the Passion frontal made a powerful visual and narrative reference to the crucifix that hung inside the arch. If the crucified Christ is indeed interpreted as a reference to the miraculous crucifix at Røldal, then the blood, which is so present in the altar frontal, alludes not just to the Eucharistic substance but also, specifically, to the liquid emitted from the Christ figure of the miraculous crucifix on Midsummer’s Eve. The frontal thus becomes an image of the image through which God had chosen to perform miracles in Røldal [11].
Several further objects were purchased by the Bergens Museum in 1895 after they had been brought to the attention of curator Bendix E. Bendixen two years before; they came in together with the aforementioned ex-votos. Bendixen used to spend his summer holidays travelling around western Norway and he was surprised to find so many thirteenth-century art works in the stave church at Røldal. After his visit he started negotiating an agreement with the parish and found the necessary finances from the museum’s own budget and from a donation by the wealthy Bergen merchant Gerhard Sundt. The core of the lot that was transferred to Bergen are two thirteenth-century sculptures of enthroned figures, one representing the Virgin and Child and the other St Olaf. Both have preserved their original polychromy, which indicates that they had never left the church before being transferred to the museum, as well as important parts of the tabernacle shrines they were housed in [12].
Medieval churches that are known to have possessed more than one tabernacle shrine are very few; a rare parallel is found in Östra Vram in Scania, now in southern Sweden but part of Denmark until 1658. The shrines no doubt served as altarpieces to the side altars that flanked the chancel arch, following the usual pattern with the Virgin on the north side and St Olaf on the south. Their corresponding size, as well as their style and execution, suggest that both were produced in the same workshop. The Lutheran Reformation abolished the liturgical use of the side altars, and these were probably removed from the church in Røldal during or after the sixteenth century. The sculptures remained, however. This procedure was not uncommon in Lutheranism; in Denmark, for example, Peder Palladius (1503-1560), superintendent for Zealand, ordered the side altars to be removed, while he recommended putting up their images on the church walls as models of piety for the people [13].
Figure 7. Sculpture of St Olaf enthroned, c. 1250, now at the University Museum of Bergen (photo University Museum of Bergen/Svein Skare).
The crowned holy Norwegian King Olaf sits on a throne and wears a robe of imitation gold, which is now darkened (Fig. 7). A mantle, which on the inside shows a painted vair fur pattern, hangs from his shoulders and falls over his knee. The belt is decorated with golden ornaments and his young, bearded face has red cheeks. Olav holds his left hand upright before his chest in a blessing gesture; his right arm is missing. Of the tabernacle shrine are preserved the square base and the back panel. The base has the shape of a chest with narrow wooden slats on the sides as supports for now-lost wings. The back panel, on which the wings hinged, has an architectural crown of which the present shape is probably secondary. Judging from the size of the base, the shrine, when opened, spanned around 160 cm.
Figure 8. Sculpture of the Virgin and Child, c. 1250, now at the University Museum of Bergen (photo University Museum of Bergen/Svein Skare).
Figure 9. Wing from a Marian shrine, c. 1250, now at the University Museum of Bergen (photo University Museum of Bergen/Svein Skare).
St Olaf’s companion piece, the Virgin with the Christ Child, is sitting frontally on a cushioned throne, vested in a tied-up imitation-golden robe that has darkened over time (Fig. 8). On her golden hair she wears an equally imitation-golden crown. With her left hand she holds the child, who is also crowned and is sitting on her left knee while he touches her other knee with his right foot. Christ holds a globe in his left hand, and he probably held his now-lost right hand raised in a blessing gesture. Of the tabernacle shrine, roughly of the same size as St Olaf’s, only two fragmented wings with reliefs on the insides are preserved (Fig. 9). One featured several scenes from the Nativity cycle: above, under an angel in a praying pose in the trefoil crowning, the Annunciation and Visitation, and below the Three Kings, of whom the front one is kneeling. This iconographical pattern indicates that the wings hinged on the left side of the shrine, with the kneeling king turned toward the centrally placed Virgin and Child.
Figure 10. Sculpture of the Archangel St Michael, c. 1250, now at the University Museum of Bergen (photo University Museum of Bergen/Svein Skare).
In addition to the two tabernacle shrines, the University Museum of Bergen possesses a third sculpture from Røldal that may also have been connected to an altar. This is a wooden figure of the Archangel St Michael fighting the dragon that can be dated to around 1250 (Fig. 10). He wears an imitation-golden robe under a richly pleated red mantle draped over his left shoulder. In his left hand is a round shield, and with his raised right arm he originally held a lance. Under his bare feet, the remains of a dragon can be seen, with whom St Michael is in combat. In Scandinavia, a relatively large number of St Michael sculptures survive. Many of them were located on altars near the church entrance or in a western gallery. From a further altar in Røldal stave church, the Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo possesses two painted wings from a small late-Gothic altarpiece (inv. nr. C5067). The panels show St Mary Magdalen and an unknown bishop on the insides and St Olaf and St Barbara on the outsides (Fig. 11). This altar may have been set up during the fifteenth century.
Figure 11. Pair of wings from an altarpiece, fifteenth century, now at the Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo (photo Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo/Ove Holst).
Figure 12. Censer, thirteenth century?, now at the University Museum of Bergen (photo University Museum of Bergen/Olav Espevoll).
Figure 13. Chasuble, 1250-1300, now at the University Museum of Bergen (photo University Museum of Bergen/Svein Skare).
Two other pieces of altar equipment were also transferred to Bergen in 1895. The first one is a censer cast in bronze with a lid showing a series of openwork gables ending in round knobs (inv. nr. MA 300) (Fig. 12). The most valuable object is a woven chasuble from the second half of the thirteenth century (inv. nr. MA 301) (Fig. 13). The pattern of templates of 30 x 30 cm each consists of symmetrically placed confronted leopards or tigers on either side of a central palmette set in medallion sections, the rims of which are decorated with lilies inside circles. The pattern resembles Andalusian fabrics from the thirteenth century and it was probably imported from there. The fact that selvedges and large areas of the fabric from Røldal are missing indicates that the current shape of the chasuble is not the original one. It may have been considerably wider and cone-shaped, in the manner of a “Glockenkasel”, or even a cope (pluviale) that was used by the higher clergy during the most solemn ceremonies.
Figure 14. Pulpit by Gottfried Hendtzschell, 1627-1629 (photo Justin Kroesen).
Around one hundred years after the Reformation, between 1627 and 1629, new furnishings for Protestant worship were created by the German woodcarver Gottfried Hendtzschell, who also worked in several other churches in Rogaland. The pulpit in the southeast corner of the nave features painted portraits of the Four Evangelists under decorated round arches in the Renaissance style around the drum, and carries an inscription that identifies its maker as originating from the city of Breslau/Wrocław in Silezia (Fig. 14). The western gallery has a parapet in the same style showing painted representations of the twelve apostles. The altarpiece in the chancel, also in the Renaissance style, shows a painted scene of the Descent from the Cross in the main section, flanked by the Our Father and Gospel texts related to the Eucharist, and the Resurrection at the top (Fig. 15). Around 1630, the church walls were entirely painted with vines and flowers, motifs known in Norway as “rosemaling” (rose painting). A large-scale restoration took place in 1913-1918.
Figure 15. Altarpiece by Gottfried Hendtzschell, 1627-1629 (photo Justin Kroesen).
It may be concluded that the remote stave church of Røldal accumulated a rich set of furnishings over the centuries that together reflect its remarkable history. Soon after its installation, the thirteenth-century wooden crucifix seems to have been considered miraculous, attracting many pilgrims. This generated income for the parish that resulted in a further enrichment of the interior. The chancel arch was flanked by side altars equipped with painted frontals and sculptures set in tabernacle shrines; further side altars may have been added later, and the liturgy was celebrated using a precious chasuble of Spanish silk.
The most remarkable aspect in Røldal’s religious history is the fact that the impact of the Protestant Reformation seems to have been both limited and gradual. Many medieval elements were maintained and pilgrimages to the wonderworking crucifix continued, albeit in a more subdued manner, until the nineteenth century. Therefore, it has been remarked that the Reformation in Røldal lasted three hundred years. During the seventeenth century, the church interior became even more richly furnished when the altarpiece was renewed and a pulpit installed. In the nineteenth century, part of the wealth of furnishings passed from the church to several museums. Thanks to these institutions in Oslo and particularly Bergen, the accumulated treasures from Røldal stave church can still be admired, although now partly outside their original context.
The artworks preserved in and from Røldal stave church together provide a unique impression of the accoutrements of a wealthy parish church in the Norwegian countryside between the thirteenth and the seventeenth centuries. Although Røldal, with its pilgrimage tradition and its remote location far away from ecclesiastical control is certainly a special case, two rare preserved early fourteenth-century inventories from ordinary West-Norwegian parish churches, Holdhus (1306) and Ylmheim (1321), also describe surprisingly rich equipment, including tapestries, cloths, banners, vestments, liturgical vessels, sculptures and books [14]. Cases such as these may help to correct the image of medieval Norway as being remote, isolated, and peripheral: the artworks and liturgical furnishings found in the churches mentioned here make clear that some of these rural communities possessed considerable financial means, had great technical abilities, and maintained far-reaching overseas connections.
Notes
[1] Leif Anker and Jiri Havran, The Norwegian Stave Churches, Oslo 2005, pp. 156-161.
[2] Martin Blindheim, Gothic Painted Wooden Sculpture in Norway 1220-1350, p. 120. Parts of the horizontal cross beam and large part of the upper vertical cross arm were cut off at some point, and later replaced. Some of the cut-off parts are now kept at the University Museum of Bergen. The cross and the Christ figure were overpainted, probably even more than once.
[3] Jens Lauridsøn Wolff, Norrigia Illustrata or Norriges med sine underliggende Lande oc Øer/kort oc Sandfærdige Beskriffuelse, Copenhagen 1651, pp. 178-179: “Der siges om Rørdals Kirke udi Stavangers Stift, i hvilken ingen Tjeneste holdes uden en Gang om Aaret, som er St. Hans Dag, at der findes et Crucifix, som giver nogen Fugtighed om den Tid, hvilken de Syge, som til bemeldte Tid did kommer, tager og stryger paa de Steder paa deres Legeme, hvor de befinde sig Meen at have, hvorefter de blive helbredede”, translation by Kaja Merete Hagen. See also Henning Laugerud, Reformasjon uten folk. Det katolske Norge i før- og etterreformatorisk tid, Oslo 2018, p. 274.
[4] Wilhelm Frimann Koren, Dagbøker 1822, archives of the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage.: “Vi have en Mængde (...) Træarme, Fødder, Hænder, som den Helbredee havde efterlagt til Vitnesbyrd paa deres Miraculøse Helbredelse”. Translation by Kaja Merete Hagen.
[5] Nicolay Nicolaysen, Norske fornlevninger. En opplysende fortegnelse over Norges fortidslevninger, ældre end reformationen og henførte til hver sit sted, Kristiania [Oslo] 1862-1866, p. 380.
[6] “Disse gjenstandes tid kan ikke bestemmes; sandsynligvis er de temmelig unge, men skikken er rent middelaldersk”.
[7] Kaja Merete Hagen, “O Holy Cross, You Are All Our Help and Comfort”. Wonderworking Crosses and Crucifixes in Late Medieval and Early Modern Norway (=Diss. University of Oslo), Oslo 2021, p. 126.
[8] Laugerud, Reformasjon uten folk, p. 275.
[9] Henrik von Achen, “The Origins of the University – The Bergens Museum art collection”, in Henrik von Achen, Siri Meyer, Eva Røyrane and Walter Wehus, Art and Architecture at the University of Bergen, Bergen 2018, pp. 5-118, here p. 84.
[10] Stephan Kuhn, Hochmittelalterliche Altarausstattungen in Norwegen im europäischen Kontext (ca. 1150–1350): Formen, Funktionen, Ensembles (=Diss. University of Bergen), Bergen 2022, pp. 112-113.
[11] Hagen, “O Holy Cross”, p. 282.
[12] Justin Kroesen and Peter Tångeberg, Helgonskåp. Medieval Tabernacle Shrines in Sweden and Europe, Petersberg 2021, pp. 63-64.
[13] Laura Katrine Skinnebach, “Visuel forandringspraksis. Appropriering af billeder efter reformationen”, in Kari G. Hempel, Poul Duedahl and Bo Poulsen, Efter reformationen/Beyond the Reformation (=Rapporter til del 29. Nordiske Historikermøde, vol. 3), Aalborg 2017, pp. 49-87, here p. 53.
[14] Diplomatarium Norvegicum 21, no. 7 and Diplomatarium Norvegicum 15, no. 8.
Justin Kroesen is Professor of Cultural History at the University of Bergen (Norway) and research curator of its Church Art Collection. He has published widely on medieval church interiors in Western Europe and their fate during the Reformation. His current project studies the survival of medieval church furnishings through the Lutheran Reformation in Germany.
Kaja Merete Hagen studied Art History at the University of Oslo and received her PhD from that university in 2021 with a thesis on wonderworking crosses and crucifixes in Late Medieval and Early Modern Norway.
