Gol stave church

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Gol stave church (Gol stavkirke) is a stave church originally from Gol municipality, Hallingdal, Norway. When the municipality built a new church around 1880, it was decided to demolish the old stave church. It was saved from destruction by the Norwegian Society for the Preservation of Ancient Monuments, which bought the materials in order to re-erect the church elsewhere. It was acquired by king Oscar II, who financed its relocation and restoration as the central building of his private open air museum near Oslo. The restoration was completed in 1885. In 1907 this early open air museum, the world's first, was merged with the Norsk Folkemuseum, which now manages the stave church, still nominally the property of the reigning monarch.

A modern replica of the stave church has been erected in Gol on a site far from the original one.

The church is dendrochronologically dated to 1212.

[edit] External links

• Gol stave church in Stavkirke.org — in Norwegian
• Fra en omvisning i Gol Stavkirke — in Norwegian