page_title: Stave church
section_title: Church with a raised roof, Type B
hierarchical_section_title: Stave church / Construction / Church with a raised roof, Type B
context_page_description: A stave church is a medieval wooden Christian church building once common in north-western Europe. The name derives from the building's structure of post and lintel construction, a type of timber framing where the load-bearing ore-pine posts are called stafr in Old Norse. Two related church building types also named for their structural elements, the post church and palisade church, are often called 'stave churches'.
  Originally much more widespread, most of the surviving stave churches are in Norway. The only remaining medieval stave churches outside Norway are those of circa 1500 at Hedared in Sweden and one Norwegian stave church relocated in 1842 to contemporary Karpacz in the Karkonosze mountains of Poland.
context_section_description: On the stone foundation, four huge ground beams (grunnstokker) are placed like a ⌗ sign, their ends protruding 1–2 meters from the lap joint where they intersect. The ends of these beams support the sills of the outer walls, forming a separate horizontal frame. The tall internal posts are placed on the internal frame of ground beams, and carry the main roof above the central nave (skip). On the outer frame of sills rest the main wall planks (veggtiler), carrying the roof over the pentice or aisles (omgang) surrounding the central space.  The roof thus slopes down in two steps, as in a basilica.
  The tall internal posts (staver) are interconnected with brackets (bueknær), and also connected to the outer walls with aisle rafters, creating a laterally rigid construction. Closer to the top of the posts (staver), shorter sills inserted between them support the upper wall (tilevegg). On top of the posts wall plates (stavlægjer) support the roof trusses, similar to those of the single nave churches.
  The Kaupanger group consists of: Kaupanger, Urnes, Hopperstad and Lom.
  The Borgund group consists of: Borgund, Gol, Hegge, Høre (Hurum), Lomen, Ringebu and Øye.
  This form of a church can also be recognized from the holes which remain from earlier earth-bound post churches built on the same sites. Little is known about what these older churches actually looked like or how they were constructed, as they were all destroyed or replaced many centuries ago.
caption: Interior from Lomen Stave Church depicting cross braces between upper and lower pincer beams and posts. Intermediate posts have been omitted.
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