The Haltdalen Stave Church
This church was probably built in the 1170s, and has been altered a number of times, the last time was in 1704, when the west wing was greatly expanded. It was used as a parish church at Haltdalen in Holtålen in the county of Sør-Trøndelag. Dismantled and moved to Trondheim in the 1880s, it underwent comprehensive restoration and was rebuilt at Kalvskinnet, and moved to Sverresborg in 1937.
Stave churches are the pride of Norwegian building history, but they are actually the remains of a building tradition that once was common across all of northwest Europe. This small stave church was rebuilt a great deal and was not in good condition when it was sold for demolition in 1881. It was moved to Trondheim and restored, and was supplemented with the portal and doors from the stave church at Ålen, which was demolished at the same time.
This type of construction uses a framework design with solid corner pillars, called staves, and with planks standing upright, called tiles, in the frames. We are most familiar with stave churches as quite complex buildings with towers and dragons' heads, as they appear particularly in western Norway. However, Scandinavian stave churches were most likely fairly simple constructions. Many of the stave churches found in Trøndelag were probably made in this style.
Over the years many changes have been made to the church, and standing as it does today much of it has been reconstructed. All of the west wall, both side walls of the chancel and the narrow chancel opening are new. Moreover, two large windows in the side walls of the nave have been closed. Nevertheless a substantial amount of the original sections have been preserved, dating back more than 800 years.
The church did not originally have a door facing the west, but the common belief when the church was restored in the 1880s was that there had been one. There was a covered balcony around the entire church – evidence is still visible on the corner staves – but no attempt has been made to recreate this.
When the church was moved to the town, all original interior furnishings had been removed. The only remaining sign of how the room actually looked is found in the faint traces of painted decorations from 1604 on the walls.
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