Hopperstad Stave Church

Hopperstad Stave Church stands on a hillside at Hopperstad near Vikøyri in Vik municipality, on the Sognefjord in Vestland county, Norway. The church was built around 1130 and is among the oldest of the surviving stave churches. By the 19th century the congregation had outgrown it, and it was slated for demolition when a new church was built in Vikøyri. The architect Peter Andreas Blix and the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments rescued the building in 1880, and it was restored in the 1880s under Blix, who rebuilt parts according to his reading of medieval stave church form. A second restoration in the 1950s, led by Arne Nygård-Nilssen, removed some of the earlier additions and returned the church to a form closer to its original appearance. The structure is typical of the type, with vertical staves, shingled roofs, an arcade running around the nave and a tall central section. Carvings include portals and wall decoration, and the interior is plain with a medieval character. The church is notable for its raised central space and the way the architecture is arranged around a single nave. Visitors can enter the church during the summer season, and the site is quieter than Borgund, with fewer coach tours. The setting overlooks farmland and the fjord, and the church can be visited together with the nearby Vik area and the Fjærland route. Its restoration history is an important part of the story, since it shows changing ideas about conservation in Norway.