Urnes Stave Church Norway

The wooden church of Urnes (the stavkirke) stands in the natural setting of Sogn og Fjordane. It was built in the 12th and 13th centuries and is an outstanding example of traditional Scandinavian wooden architecture. It brings together traces of Celtic art, Viking traditions and Romanesque spatial structures. The stave churches constitute one of the most elaborate types of wood construction which are typical of northern Europe from the Neolithic period to the Middle Ages.

Continent: Europe

Country: Norway

Category: Cultural

Criterion: (I) (II)(III)

Date of Inscription: 1979

Introducing Christianity into Norway

Christianity was introduced into Norway during the reign of St Olav (1016-30). The churches were built on the classic basilical plan, but entirely of wood. The roof frames were lined with boards and the roof itself covered with shingles in accordance with construction techniques which were widespread in Scandinavian countries.

Among the roughly 1,300 medieval stave churches indexed, about 30 remain in Norway. Some of them are very large, such as Borgund, Hopperstad or Heddal churches, whereas others, such as Torpo or Underdal, are tiny. Urnes Church was selected to represent this outstanding series of wood buildings for a number of reasons, which make it an exceptional monument:

Urnes Stave Church

Browse Gallery Plus UNESCO Storyline

Its antiquity: This church, which was rebuilt towards the mid-12th century, includes some elements originating from a stave church built about one century earlier whose location was revealed by the 1956-57 excavations.

Slideshow for this Heritage Site

The exemplary nature of its structure: This is characterized by the use of cylindrical columns with cubic capitals and semicircular arches, all of which use wood, the indigenous building material, to express the language of stone Romanesque architecture.

The outstanding quality of its sculpted monumental decor: On the outside, this includes strapwork panels and elements of Viking tradition taken from the preceding building (11th century). In the interior is an amazing series of 12th-century figurative capitals that constitute the origin of the Urnes Style production.

The wealth of liturgical objects of the medieval period: This includes Christ, the Virgin and St John as elements of a rood beam, a pulpit of sculpted wood, enamelled bronze candlesticks, the corona of light, etc.

Excellent conservation of a perfectly homogeneous ensemble: The embellishment of the 17th century (1601 and c. 1700) and the restorations of 1906-10 preserved its authenticity completely. The location of the church is within the backdrop of a glacial valley on the north bank of Sognefjord.

Browse All UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Norway. The original UNESCO inscription Here!!!

The Vega Archipelago Norway

The Vega Archipelago reflects the way generations of fishermen/farmers have, over the past 1,500 years, maintained a sustainable living in an inhospitable seascape near the Arctic Circle, based on the now unique practice of eider-down harvesting, and it also celebrates the contribution made by women to the eider-down process. The site is the major part of the Vega archipelago, a seascape made up of more than 6,500 islands, islets and 'skerries', and surrounding shallow water. It is an exposed landscape of sea and land, with many low, almost treeless islands dotting the surface of the sea against a backdrop of dramatic coastal mountains. Over 50 islands are, or were, inhabited, many seasonally.

Continent: Europe

Country: Norway

Category: Cultural

Criterion: (V)

Date of Inscription: 2004

The Vega seascape

The seascape is centred on Vega, the largest island, 10 km from the mainland. The unique geology forms the raw material for settlement and livelihood. This archipelago is part of a 'strand flat' formation, a wave-cut platform providing a broad area of shallow sea punctuated by low islands and the mainland fjords. The archipelago shares characteristics with Norway's northern Atlantic coast, but its cultural landscape is more intense and better preserved than elsewhere. The Vega seascape contains fishing villages, quays, warehouses, 'eider' houses, the farming landscape and navigation buildings such as lighthouses and beacons. The site reflects the following cultural qualities.

Historical depth: There is extensive evidence for early Stone Age habitations. More than 100 sites, some with visible houses, have been discovered on the lower slopes of Vega Mountain, but this is thought to be a tiny percentage of the total. The largest settlement site is Asgården, with the safest harbour and where many artefacts have been recovered. Smaller settlements probably functioned as hunting sites. The earlier sites on Vega were abandoned as people moved to lower ground, where there is a continuity of settlement to the present day, and a continuity of livelihood, with finds associated with farming, fishing and collecting down. Finds include house mounds, field clearance cairns, harbours, barrows and 'eider' houses.

The Vega Archipelago

Browse Gallery Plus UNESCO Storyline

Distinctive settlement patterns: The strand flat formation has allowed agriculture to develop on a small scale on the islands. Fields were formed by building up suitable soil through mulching with seaweed. The traditional pattern of 'infields' and 'outfields' can still be clearly seen. Beyond the fields, varieties of heath have developed through prolonged grazing (by sheep and cattle), scything and burning, and much of the diverse heathland vegetation is now related to these processes. Of the 56 islands that have been inhabited, some had only one house whereas others, such as Skjævær and Vega, had larger settlements. Many of the houses were used only seasonally, for fishing or down gathering. The local building material was wood. In the extreme climate, buildings had a limited lifespan: no surviving buildings are older than 100-200 years. Many dwellings survive, unlike buildings related to the fishing and farming processes.

Slideshow for this Heritage Site

Specialized occupations down collecting and fishing: the harvesting of down (the soft feathers from the nests of eider ducks, which breed in large numbers on the islands) is the most distinctive occupation. Eider duck were encouraged to nest year after year on the same sites in nesting houses built from either stone or wood and lined with seaweed to simulate natural nesting sites under crags on the shore.

There is archaeological evidence for the harvesting of birds from the time of the earliest settlements, and archival evidence from Egil's Saga, written down in the 11th century. Eggs were collected for domestic use. The nesting houses attracted the birds and provided shelter from predators. The fishing and hunting of marine animals has taken place since the ice retreated around 10,000 years ago.

The type of fishing varied throughout the year. Today there are very few active fishermen compared to their numbers 100 years ago. Remains of this fishing tradition are seen in quays, breakwaters, warehouses and boathouses, as well as the Bremstein lighthouse. The tradition of boat-building dates back to Viking times and is still maintained.

Cultural traditions: The oral traditions of the islands relate to the traditions of fishing, farming and down harvesting, and are significant in connection with place-names, landmarks for fishermen, rituals, folk medicine and local superstitions, including spirits to be propitiated for successful fishing or farming, and those that foretold death and disaster.

Browse All UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Norway. The original UNESCO inscription Here!!!

Wooden houses of Bryggen Norway

Bryggen, the old wharf of Bergen, is a reminder of the town's importance as part of the Hanseatic League's trading empire from the 14th to the mid-16th century. Many fires, the last in 1955, have ravaged the characteristic wooden houses of Bryggen. Its rebuilding has traditionally followed old patterns and methods, thus leaving its main structure preserved, which is a relic of an ancient wooden urban structure once common in Northern Europe. Today, some 62 buildings remain of this former townscape.

Continent: Europe

Country: Norway

Category: Cultural

Criterion: (III)

Date of Inscription: 1979

Traditional wooden buildings

In its present form, following the 1702 fire, the harmonious ancient quarter of Bryggen illustrates the use of space in district of Hanseatic merchants. It is a type of northern fondaco unequalled by even Lubeck or Novgorod. This part of the town with its traditional wooden buildings perpetuates the memory of one of the oldest large trading ports of northern Europe, and the only one outside the Hanseatic League whose original structures remain within the city limits and cityscape. Founded in about 1070 by King Olav the Peaceful (Olav Kyrre), the port of Bergen was initially a possession of the Old Norwegian aristocracy that had acquired a monopoly on fish trading.

The sagas, such as that of King Sverre (c. 1180) already spoke of the Bryggen district as the base of patrician merchants. About 1350, the powerful Hanseatic League gained control of Bergen and a food packing trade was established not long afterwards. The Bryggen district owes its physiognomy to the German colonists. It is characterized by the construction of buildings along the narrow streets running parallel to the docks.

Wooden houses of Bryggen

Browse Gallery Plus UNESCO Storyline

The urban unit revolves around a courtyard (gard), which is common to several three-level wooden houses whose gabled facades and lateral walls are covered with shingles, as are the roofs. Towards the back of the gård, there is a small warehouse or storeroom (kjellere) of stone which protects the area against fire. This repetitive structure was adapted to the living conditions of the colonists of the hanseatic trading post.

Slideshow for this Heritage Site

The German merchants, who were bachelors, took up winter residence in the small individual wooden houses, and the storeroom was used as an individual or collective warehouse. A true colony, Bryggen enjoyed quasi-extraterritoriality which continued beyond the departure of the Hanseatics until the creation of a Norwegian trading post in 1754 on the impetus of fishermen and shipowners of German origin.

This district, which bears the traces of social organization of space going back to the 14th century, suffered damage over the centuries, some of the most devastating of which being the fires of 1476 and 1702. It nevertheless retains a medieval appearance owing to the fact that it was always reconstructed in accordance with the original plan and using traditional techniques.

In 1955 another fire did extensive damage to the city as a whole, one-third of which was destroyed. Following this last catastrophe, the remaining 58 houses were carefully restored and methodical excavations revealed various levels of occupation, from the 12th to the 18th centuries. On this particular occasion, the variations of the seafront, which contrast with the immutability of the land plot, were studied.

Browse All UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Norway. The original UNESCO inscription Here!!!

Roros Mining Town and the Circumference Norway

Roros is a characteristic example of this type of technological and industrial development, as well as being an outstanding survivor of a traditional kind of human settlement built by traditional methods of construction. Also, it has vulnerable under the impact of economic change since the cessation of copper mining after 333 years of continuous activity. Lastly, Roros embodies a strong degree of rarity because of its location. It was built as an industrial community in the mountains (650 m above sea level) at a very northern latitude subject to extremely long winters and low temperatures (-50 °C).

Continent: Europe

Country: Norway

Category: Cultural

Criterion: (III)(IV) (V)

Date of Inscription: 1980

Beginning of Copper Works

Within the framework of Norway's inventory of cultural property, Roros ranks in importance with Bryggen and the stave church at Urnes. Roros is an extensive mining settlement dating from 1644, when the development of the copper works began. Its physical history has continued without interruption since the town was burned in 1679.

Thus the numerous surviving buildings represent the Norwegian tradition of construction that flourished in the 18th and 19th centuries. The buildings reflect the dual occupations of the inhabitants - mining and farming - the domestic groups being arranged as compact farmyards. These groups are disposed on a regular urban pattern adapted to the mountain terrain, reflecting the particular kind of industrial planning introduced by the Danish kings of Norway in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Roros Mining Town

Browse Gallery Plus UNESCO Storyline

Slideshow for this Heritage Site

Roros is in a remarkably complete state of preservation. An engraving of the town as seen from the slag heaps in the 1860s is virtually the same as a photograph of the 1970s taken from the same viewpoint.

Preservation efforts date from the early years of the 20th century. The first legal protection of buildings in Roros was effected in 1923. Legal protection now extends to 80 buildings. In 1936 land was purchased for the development of an open-air museum, and the first old building was moved to the site in 1947. However, the museum impetus was overtaken by a movement, dating from 1938, that led to the preparation of plans for the preservation of the town and copper works in situ.

Browse All UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Norway. The original UNESCO inscription Here!!!

West Norwegian Fjords Norway

Situated in south-western Norway, north-east of Bergen, Geirangerfjord and Naoyfjord, set 120 km from one another, are part of the west Norwegian fjord landscape, which stretches from Stavanger in the south to Andalsnes, 500 km to the north-east. The two fjords, among the world's longest and deepest, are considered as archetypical fjord landscapes and among the most scenically outstanding anywhere. Their exceptional natural beauty is derived from their narrow and steep-sided crystalline rock walls that rise up to 1,400 m from the Norwegian Sea and extend 500 m below sea level. The sheer walls of the fjords have numerous waterfalls while free-flowing rivers cross their deciduous and coniferous forests to glacial lakes, glaciers and rugged mountains. The landscape features a range of supporting natural phenomena, both terrestrial and marine, such as submarine moraines and marine mammals.

Continent: Europe

Country: Norway

Category: Natural

Criterion: (VII)(VIII)

Date of Inscription: 2005

The world's longest and deepest fjords

The two fjords, among the world's longest and deepest, are considered as archetypical fjord landscapes and among the most scenically outstanding anywhere. Their exceptional natural beauty is derived from their narrow and steep-sided crystalline rock walls that rise up to 1,400 m from the Norwegian Sea and extend 500 m below sea level. The sheer walls of the fjords have numerous waterfalls, while free-flowing rivers cross their deciduous and coniferous forests to glacial lakes, glaciers and rugged mountains. The landscape features a range of supporting natural phenomena, both terrestrial and marine such as submarine moraines and marine mammals.

Remnants of old and now mostly abandoned transhumant farms add a cultural aspect to the dramatic natural landscape that complements and adds human interest to the area.

West Norwegian Fjords Norway

Browse Gallery Plus UNESCO Storyline

Slideshow for this Heritage Site

Browse All UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Norway. The original UNESCO inscription Here!!!

The Rock Drawings of Alta Norway

The Rock Drawings of Alta constitute the most important piece of evidence in favour of the existence of human activity in the confines of the Great North during the prehistoric period. Studied from 1967, the petroglyphs of the Alta fjord in the province of Tromsø were immediately classed among the leading rock art sites in the world. Close to the Arctic Circle, they are a valuable illustration of human activity between 4200 and 500 BC in the Northern Hemisphere. The position of the paintings and engravings with respect to sea level at different postglacial periods constitutes a relative dating element, which is corroborated by objective iconography data.

Continent: Europe

Country: Norway

Category: Cultural

Criterion: (III)

Date of Inscription: 1985

Ancient Rock art of Alta

According to the principle of reverse stratigraphy, the most ancient works are generally the highest, the most recent being close to the present sea level (the height difference is roughly 26 m). They are primordial evidence of the fauna, representing reindeer, elks, bears, dogs and/or wolves, foxes, hares, geese, ducks, swans, cormorants, halibut, salmon and whales, and of the environment. They also depict boating, hunting, trapping and fishing scenes, as well as people taking part in dances and ritual acts. In the final phase, some agricultural activities, rendered precarious by the climate, appear to have supplemented certain staples traditionally provided by hunting and fishing.

The thousands of paintings and engravings located at 45 sites scattered over seven localities illustrate a chronological sequence consisting of four phases. The largest area is at Hjemmeluft/Jiepmaluokta, where Alta Museum is situated. Approximately 3,000 figures have been found here. This is the only area open to the public. In addition, there is an area with rock paintings. Some of the panels at Hjemmeluft/Jiepmaluokta are linked by wooden footways.

Ancient Rock art of Alta

Browse Gallery Plus UNESCO Storyline

Hunters and fishers in the late Stone Age/early Metal Age, between 6,200 and 2,000 years ago, made the rock carvings in Alta. During this period, Hjemmeluft/Jiepmaluokta was where people from the coast and inland regions, who gathered here several times a year perhaps in connection with seasonal, nomadic journeys, performed ritual ceremonies. The rock carvings depict some of the beliefs held by these people and the rites they practised. The rock carvings were probably elements in myths and stories about the worlds inhabited by the people and the spirits.

Slideshow for this Heritage Site

The rock carvings at Hjemmeluft/Jiepmaluokta were hewn into the massive and hard sandstone using one stone as a chisel and another stone or an antler as a hammer. The outlines of the figures were pecked out first, and then the lines and surfaces were chiselled out. Today many of the figures are difficult to see, and, therefore, some of the figures along the wooden footway are painted with a red colour resembling the colour of the rock paintings in Scandinavia. However, the majority of the rock carvings in Alta are not painted.

The museum exhibition covers the period from the pioneer settlement 11,000 years ago to the birth of Christ. It gives a thematic introduction to Finnmark's prehistory, which has been studied by researchers ever since the geologist and archaeologist Anders Nummedal discovered the earliest settlements in this part of Norway in 1925. This pioneer settlement in the early Stone Age was previously known as the Komsa Culture, named after the little mountain in Alta where Nummedal made his first finds. Throughout the Stone Age and early Metal Age, hunting and fishing people lived off the ample resources in the area. The first immigrants settled on the coast, but people gradually also occupied the interior. In the large rock art areas in Alta, groups from coast and inland met to practise religious rites and beliefs.

The rock carvings in Alta indicate that this was a religious meeting-place in the late Stone Age (4200-1800 BC) and early Metal Age (1800 BC). Various types of bear-hunting scenes are common among the oldest rock carvings, suggesting that the bear may have been viewed in a similar way 5,000-6,000 years ago as it was in the pre-Christian Sámi religion. The Sámi gods are presented as they are depicted on the Runebommen (magic drum). The exhibition also shows how, in the Sámi religion, nature was regarded as possessing a soul and being alive.

Browse All UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Norway. The original UNESCO inscription Here!!!

#979 Preacher's Rock, Norway

Known as Preacher's Rock, or Preikestolen, this phenomenal rock sits 600m high above the Lysefjorden. Originating in the last ice age when the glacier that formed the fjord touched the edge of the rock and broke off large chunks. Ice formed cracks in places that remain. After a walk of around 3km, tourists emerge on the flat rock surface, daring to go as near to the edge as they can! What a beautiful spot.

I have not visited this beautiful place -- these photos are courtesy of my father, Brian Marquand. 

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preikestolen