Column of the Urnes Stave Church

Reconstruction illustration of the column of the north-facing wall of the Urnes stave church displaying Urnes style carvings in high relief.

 

The column was most likely part of the decoration of the western facade of the original stave church and was positioned to the right of the entrance decoration as the corner post of the facade.

 

The decoration would have continued across the top left edge of the image field and extended into a wide decorative ribbon going across the entire western facade connecting the other two decorated rectangular panels and the portal.

 

The column has been shortened to fit the dimensions of the present church. Its current size is now c. 95 cm wide (at its widest) and c. 240 cm tall.

 

This column and several other elements with and without carved decorations were originally part of an earlier church built sometime after 1070 but were reused in the present stave church from c. 1135.

 

———
Urnes, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway.