Rollag Stave Church

Little remains of the original stave church. The nave has been extended westwards, and short transepts project to the north and south. These were built using stave construction in the 1690s. An octagonal roof turret rises above the crossing. Rollag is also one of the few stave churches to retain its chimney. The interior is dominated by colours and furnishings from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Galleries line three sides of the church, and crossbeams support a flat ceiling decorated with cloud paintings from the 1760s. The walls of the chancel and nave were painted with arcades, flowers and fruit in 1683. The hourglass-shaped wooden baptismal font is probably medieval, although its painted colours were added later. The fifteenth-century crucifix was also repainted at a later date. Beside the chancel arch hangs a commemorative panel from 1653 incorporating a late-medieval Calvary group: Christ on the cross, with Mary and John at its foot. The richly decorated altarpiece from the 1670s includes a relief of the Virgin and Child dating from the late fifteenth century.