Amazing Middle Ages
Built between the 11th and 13th centuries, stavkirker, or "wooden churches", represent a fascinating transition between pre-Christian cultures and the Romanesque Middle Ages. Heirs to Viking know-how and techniques in naval architecture, they highlight the astonishing architectural and plastic properties of wood. The mast-like pillars supporting the roof over the entire height of the building were placed on the sides or in the corners of the main nave. The aisles and ambulatory, key spaces in the basilica plan adopted by these churches, generally all had their own roofs, creating a jumble of roofs on the outside. While the semi-circular arches and powerful columns with soberly sculpted capitals are a translation of Romanesque architecture, the carved motifs with their elegant chiselled interlacing, snakes and dragons are borrowings from Viking culture. Often entirely covered in wooden shingles, most stavkirker were coated with tar to protect and preserve the wood. Of the thousands of churches built, only around twenty have survived. One of the oldest isUrnes, whose richly carved style inspired many others. Don't miss Heddal, nicknamed "the cathedral of the stavkirker ", whose multiple roofs give the whole church a pagoda-like appearance. The Hopperstad stavkirke, with its superb wooden lace finials, and the Borgund stavkirke, with its impressive dragon heads, are other must-sees. Alongside these wooden marvels, the country has also seen the birth of some very fine stone churches and cathedrals. Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim is Norway's finest example of Gothic architecture. See its octagonal plan, inspired by the great English cathedrals, and admire its powerful towers, airy nave and richly ornamented columns and capitals.
The very religious Middle Ages were also a period of great commercial prosperity. In Bergen, the old quarter of Bryggen bears witness to the power of the Hanseatic League. Its unique structure is made up of urban units made up of rows of 2 to 3-storey buildings, known as gård, usually located on the sides of narrow passageways serving as private courtyards. The houses are built of logs, while the galleries are made up of columns and beams clad in horizontal wooden panels. The roofs, proudly bearing the carved gables typical of Hanseatic towns, are tiled. For safety reasons, kitchens, storerooms and small warehouses were built of stone and placed at the rear. Isolated from the rest of the city by a fence, the trading post was more than ever concerned with preserving the wealth and secrets of the powerful Hanseatic League!
16th-18th century
It was at this time that the great stone citadels and fortresses appeared. Preceded by moats and punctuated by gates and drawbridges, Fredrikstad 's mighty ramparts sheltered a town of clear, orderly urban planning inspired by the canons of the Renaissance, whose grid streets were lined with superb wooden mansions, stone warehouses and beautiful churches of harmonious proportions. A century later, in nearby Halden, the pentagonal Fredriksten fortress was built to reinforce the city's defenses. In Kristiansand, Christiansholm Fortress is another fine example of military engineering. See its thick ramparts and powerful circular keep. And don't miss the Vardø fortress with its star-shaped layout. After the harmony of the Renaissance, it's time for the Baroque, especially in religious buildings. Kongsberg church is undoubtedly one of the country's finest Baroque sanctuaries. Take a close look at each decorative element, and you'll discover that what you thought was marble is actually painted wood! The church also bears witness to the highly hierarchical organization of society at the time. Opposite the choir, the loggias of the rich and powerful dominate the bays of the nave intended for the bourgeois, while the poorest are relegated to the upper levels in galleries of limited visibility. The powerful of the day also built very fine residences. La Baronnie de Rosendal is a superb Renaissance manor house whose gardens and harmonious rose garden will leave you breathless. The gardens of Damsgård Manor are a superb example of Baroque gardens, with their abundance of sculptures and ponds. The manor itself is a rococo masterpiece... in wood! Just like the royal residence of Stiftsgården in Trondheim. Røros is a fascinating example of a 17th-century mining town built entirely of wood. Its urban planning reflects the hierarchy governing the mine. The large houses away from the smelter are reserved for the management. You'll notice that from the heart of the town, the street narrows to the manager's house, creating an optical effect that underlines its importance. A vast dwelling with comforts far removed from those of the small log buildings and slag roofs reserved for the miners. And take a good look at the church steeple: it bears the emblem of the mining town!
From neoclassical to modern
To testify to their prosperity, the great families of the 19th century built sumptuous mansions with neoclassical rigor. Pediments, cornices and colonnades adorn the facades of these pastel-colored mansions. Jarlsberg Manor is a fine example. The need to rediscover a link with the country's history and folklore is one of the hallmarks of national Romanticism, which is reflected in the architectural revival of medieval motifs. The church of St. Olaf in Balestrand, with its tangle of dragon-headed roofs, is an ode to the stavkirker. The cathedrals of Oslo and Kristiansand are fine examples of neo-Gothic architecture. Brick is the key element of the period, and is also found on the Oslo Parliament building. The eclectic style of the period was also evident in large middle-class residences. The Villa Breidablikk in Stavanger is a fine example of the "Swiss style", a historicizing style rooted in local traditions, which Norwegians eventually adapted to their own folklore, creating the "dragon style" combining vernacular wooden architecture and Viking motifs. This style is very much in evidence in the tourist resorts that were developing at the time. Ålesund is a veritable manifesto of Art Nouveau. Destroyed by a gigantic fire in 1904, and rebuilt with funds and materials sent by Wilhelm II, the town was the result of an astonishing convergence between the needs of an urban business elite and the formal innovations imported from Germany and England by a group of young Norwegian architects. Ålesund was adorned with curves and interlacing stone, brick and wrought iron. But this Art Nouveau was still strongly imbued with local traditions, as evidenced by the ornamental turrets and spearheads on the gables and dormers, reminiscent of medieval Norway. Respecting conditions of illumination, hygiene and density, limiting the height of buildings and the number of chimneys, using reasoned materials... the rules imposed by urban planners ensured harmony and homogeneity. In the 1930s, it was the turn of functionalism to make its appearance. Sobriety of line, simple, geometric volumes, the predominance of concrete, the importance given to light... these are just some of the major characteristics of this style. The Villa Stenersen, whose general structure is reminiscent of Le Corbusier's buildings on stilts, and the Villa Dammann, both in Oslo, are major representatives of this architectural modernity.Oslo's City Hall, for its part, is an astonishing synthesis of modernist geometry and sobriety and historicist borrowings, its towers and ochre color recalling the Gothic period. Largely destroyed by the Germans, post-war Norway faced the challenges of reconstruction. Formal research was quickly abandoned in favor of functional architecture that was quick and inexpensive to build. This marked the birth of satellite towns on the outskirts of major cities, such as Lambertseter in Oslo.
Contemporary architecture
The great figure of contemporary Norwegian architecture is Sverre Fehn, who was awarded the Pritzker Prize (the Nobel Prize for architecture) in 1997. Fehn imagined a poetic modernism, in highly graphic yet resolutely functionalist works, driven by an astonishing duality between light and shadow. Among his landmark works are: the Storhamarlåven in Hamar, a 16th-century barn converted into a museum where glass and concrete interact with the original wooden elements; the National Museum of Architecture in Oslo, where his modernism meets the classical lines of the 19th-century building; the astonishing structure on stilts of the Lillehammer Art Museum; and, above all, the incredible Fjaerland Glacier Museum, a long, low structure in grey-white concrete whose sloping side walls follow the line of the glaciers. Jan Inge Hovig, who also blends modernity, tradition and respect for place, is famous for his astonishing Arctic Cathedral in Tromsø, with its 11 triangular arches pointing skywards. Today, it's Oslo that's being transformed by the pencil strokes of innovative architects. The National Museum of Oslo, with its elegant combination of natural stone, slate, wood and concrete, already stands as the representative of the city's ecological and sustainable ambitions. Another of the city's landmark buildings is theOpera House, designed by the leading Norwegian firm Snøhetta. Its sleek lines create a roof you can... walk on! Other must-sees include the Astrup Fearnley Museum, where Renzo Piano designed the triangular roof supported by astonishing steel and wood beams; and the Bjørvika district, with its new library whose facade notches mark the entrances, and of course its Barcode complex, made up of 12 buildings of different sizes separated by narrow strips of land and which, in the distance, looks like a barcode! And this creative vitality extends beyond Oslo. The Snøhetta agency has endowed the country with some of its finest structures. We owe the superb Petter Dass Museum, literally embedded in the mountains; the incredible glass belvedere at Hjerkinn; and the Dovre Reindeer Watching Center, with its transparent envelope and carved wooden interior. In Svalbard, the agency also designed The Arc, a giant igloo in the middle of the icy expanse. And there are many more contemporary treasures to discover, such as The Twist, a new space at the Kistefos Museum in Hadeland. Designed by the renowned Danish agency BIG, this 60 m-span structure was conceived as a bridge spanning the river. The astonishing mountain refuges and inns, the ice hotels and spectacular glass and wood cabins, the panoramic road lookouts (don't miss the mushroom-shaped toilets at Hardanger!)... there's so much to see, and so much more to come, such as the Museum of Nordic Arts in Kristiansand, a converted grain silo due to open in 2024, and above all the Cetacean Museum in Andoya, dubbed The Whale, whose paved roof will serve as a whale-watching terrace! Scheduled to open in 2026.
Native habitat and vernacular wealth
Lapland's oldest indigenous people, the Sami are great reindeer herders, and therefore mainly nomadic due to transhumance. The lavvu tent is the preferred habitat for these seasonal movements. It is supported by a tripod of long, forked branches criss-crossed at the top, onto which a dozen or so poles are assembled. This wooden frame is then covered with reindeer skins, or today, more often than not, with canvas. Proud of this traditional way of life, the Sami still perpetuate it today, as witnessed by the Sami Parliament in Karasjok, whose semi-circular structure ends in a lavvu-shaped plenary hall at one end. The Sami have also developed the goahti. This round or conical hut has a frame of 4 birch poles bent to form 2 arches. The whole structure is assembled using wooden dowels and no nails. This framework is then covered with birch bark, held in place by layers of grass, moss or peat. The covering of these huts is reminiscent of traditional wooden houses, whose roofs are often covered with squares of peat on which the turf then grows, providing perfect insulation for the house. Originally built from stacked rough-hewn logs, these were later worked with an axe and fitted with notches so that they could be nested together for greater stability. These houses have a simple rectangular floor plan and generally feature just one main room. Openings are limited and narrow to preserve heat. Originally, large farms had thatched roofs or roofs covered with birch bark and turf, and their walls were made of turf, palisades or woven latticework of strips of wood plastered with cob. Other vernacular treasures include numerous houses built on stilts. In Longyearbyen, these elevated structures prevent heated buildings from melting the permafrost! In Lofoten, rorbuer are old fishermen's huts on stilts, usually painted in bright colors, and now very popular with holidaymakers. Tradition is also alive in the houses of small harbour villages, painted in bright colors to protect the wood, rustic mountain chalets, houses with slate or coloured tile roofs, hytte or wooden huts popular with locals... a richness witnessed in the many open-air museums. Not to be missed: the Museum of Folk Traditions in Oslo and the Maihaugen Museum in Lillehammer. And this tradition of wood is not about to die out... with the Mjøstarnet tower in Brumunddal, inaugurated in 2019, Norway can boast the tallest wooden tower in the world to date... 85.4 m all the same!
