Selje Monastery and St Sunniva's Island

Selje Monastery and St Sunniva's Island lie at Selje on the Stad peninsula, in Vestland county, Norway. According to legend, Sunniva was an Irish princess who fled with her companions by sea and landed on the island of Selja, where she and the others took refuge in a cave and died. The cave became a place of veneration, and a church was built on the island, with a Benedictine monastery established there in the late 10th or early 11th century, which is among the first monasteries in Norway. The remains of St Sunniva were said to be kept in Selje until they were moved to Bergen in the 12th century, and the saint became the patron of western Norway. The monastery was a significant pilgrimage centre during the Middle Ages, and the ruins that remain include the church of St Alban, the Sunniva Church, and the monastery buildings with stone walls and arched openings, alongside the sacred cave. After the Reformation the monastery fell out of use and the buildings decayed. The ruins were consolidated through modern conservation work, and they are now a protected heritage site. In the town itself, on the mainland, stand the ruins of the Selje church and monastery site and a modern pilgrim route. Visitors usually reach the island by a short boat trip in summer, and a path leads around the ruins and the cave. The setting on the coast, with views to the sea, makes the visit as much about landscape as about archaeology. Information boards explain the story of the saint and the history of the monastery.