The beautifully carved wall timbers and the portal are from the church that stood here previously. After 750 years of changing times, this proud memorial to the Ornes clan stood in danger of collapse. Then the Society took the church over in 1882 and restored it. Today, the church is prized so highly that it has been placed on UNESCO’s world heritage list.

The north portal and carvings, in what is now known as the Urnes style, are among the most important architectural treasures in Norway. A lion with a mane is fighting with a snake. The motif has its roots in ornamentation from Viking times, but has been interpreted as Christ combating evil. 

We can find examples of the Urnes style all over Scandinavia and in the British Isles.  Read more here (English) and here (Norwegian only).

There must have been a great family living at Ornes, to have built such a fine, richly decorated church. In the middle ages, Ornes was one of the richest and most important manors in western Norway. And this is where we find the oldest traces of churchbuilding in the country.

A few kilometres further on, towards Skjolden, lies the farm of Ytre Kroken, a large landholding in the middle ages. In the mid 18th century the farm came into the ownership of the Munthe family and the 200 year old house played a major role in Norwegian cultural life in the early 1800s. Artists such as Johannes Flintoe and Joachim Frich were to be found here and it was here that the artists Adolph Tidemand and Hans Gude first met. The painter Johan C. Dahl often used Munthehuset as his based during his trips to Sogn.

The Society and the artists 

J. C. Dahl was also one of the driving forces behind the foundation of the Society for the Preservation of Norwegian Ancient Monuments. During his frequent travels he had become aware of these cultural treasures that are falling apart all over the country. And when travelling some years later, he noted that many of the old treasures were gone or were near collapse. Joachim Frich, who was a pupil of J. C. Dahl, became the Society’s first chairman on its foundation in 1844. 

Artists, scientists and other socially committed persons came together to found the Society for the Preservation of Norwegian Ancient Monuments. In a country that, until then, had no official body to take care of cultural treasures, the Society took on the job. They began by taking over many of the stave churches that were in danger of collapse. That is why the Society still owns eight stave churches. The founders wanted to save their cultural heritage and they wanted the people to become more aware of what they had. And that still holds true, even though methods may have changed over the years.