Today I visited the wonderful Fantoft Stave Church for the first time.
The Fantoft Stave Church is located in the Fana district of Bergen. It is a reconstruction of the church that burned down in 1992.
The church was originally built around 1150 and stood in Fortun in Sogn. Consul Fredrik G. Gade bought the medieval part of the church, then disassembled it into parts and rebuilt it in Fantoft in 1883.
On June 6, 1992, the church burned down almost to the ground within half an hour. The building was on fire when firefighters arrived 2 minutes after being notified, leaving 20 firefighters with no way to save the church. The fire was believed to be arson.
Rebuilding was a challenge for builders and carpenters, as stave churches had not been built in Norway for many centuries and existing building knowledge was modest. Most of the parts of the building were also manufactured on site based on measurements and existing drawings. For the new church, 400-year-old pine trees from Kaupanger were used.
