Rødven Stave Church

The tower is tall and slender, with an octagonal plan. The original chancel was narrower, but it was demolished and replaced by the present chancel, probably in the eighteenth century. The sacristy and entrance porch are also later additions. The present roof turret and tower were rebuilt following damage in the early eighteenth century. When the new church on the site was consecrated in 1907, the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments took ownership of the stave church. Rødven belongs to the Møre type of stave church, with intermediate posts along the side walls and no naturally curved timber braces in the roof structure. External timber props provide lateral support. The ceiling is flat, with beams spanning the interior. The load-bearing framework consists of upright posts, or “staves,” secured between two horizontal beams above, known as wall plates, and a sill beam below. This construction gives the stave church its name. From outside, Rødven’s stave framework is concealed by horizontal weatherboarding. The interior reflects the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The painted decoration on the walls and ceilings dates from the seventeenth century. The pulpit and altarpiece, in a restrained Baroque style, date from 1712. A rood—a large crucifix dating from the second half of the thirteenth century—hangs at the chancel opening.