Норвегиядағы Хеддал ағаш шіркеуі

Church in Telemark, Norway

Heddal Stave Church (, ) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Notodden Municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is located in the village of Heddal. It is the church for the Heddal parish which is part of the Øvre Telemark prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Agder og Telemark. The wooden, triple nave stave church was built in a long church design around the year 1200 using plans drawn up by an unknown architect. The church seats about 180 people. The church is one of the 28 surviving stave churches in Norway and it is considered to be the largest of the stave churches. It was constructed entirely out of wood at the beginning of the 13th century, and it was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. After the Reformation, the church was in very poor condition. A major restoration of the building took place during 1849–1851. However, because the restorers lacked the necessary knowledge and skills, another restoration was required in the 1950s. The interior was marked by the period after the Reformation in 1536–1537 and is for a great part a result of the restoration that took place in the 1950s. Heddal Stave Church is a popular tourist attraction, and it is open to the public during the summer season. The church is still in use, and remains a popular place to get married. In the 19th century, it became one of the first stave churches to be featured in a scholarly publication, described and depicted in one of Johannes Flintoe's illustrations.

Made from Scots pine wood, Heddal Stave Church is supported by load bearing staves (wooden poles) and sits on a foundation of stone. To strengthen its massive structure, interior staves are alternated between short ones versus full length ones. As a hybrid church, Heddal's nave resembles both Borgund style churches with their towering central plan, as well as the Kaupanger group's long arcaded naves: as seen in Heddal's chancel, which has six free masts. Although the chancel remains, its pillars were removed along with their inscribed texts. However, one of these portals no longer exists; only a line drawing remains depicting it. Initially, these portals acted as a thematic separation between the inside, which resembles the beginning of Christianity, versus the outside, recalling the end of paganism. Unlike the facades of older stave churches, which have pagan dragons occupying higher position than their Christian counterpart, Heddal employs Christian symbols at a more elevated level since it was built after Christianity's influence had spread throughout Norway. Typically, inside the structure, between the months of October and May, the church is heated to around using a continuous mild heating process On the interior of the church's chancel and nave were found the remainders of medieval wall paintings, overpainted with 17th century décor. By 2008–2010, the distempered paintings were refurbished to their original medieval designs, similar in style to those in the Torpo Stave Church, showing a connection between their figurative and decorative forms.

The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1315, but that is not the year of construction. There is a lot of uncertainty about the origins of the church. Historical records vary with dates ranging from 1147 up to the 1300s. Dendrochronological dating showed rather uncertain results, but they date the church to between 1086 and 1196, but the samples were not complete, so the dates may not be accurate. There are also some runic inscriptions in the choir of the church that could be interpreted to say that the chancel was built in 1167 and it functioned as the church until the nave was built about 95 years later during the mid 13th century. Another theory is that there was an older church on the same site that was replaced in the 13th century and the new building reused some of the wood from the previous building. The prevailing theories generally say the church was likely built some time around the year 1200. When the church was first built it was known as the Hitterdal Church or Ryen Church in Hitterdal, using the old name for Heddal and the local farm, Ryen. The church fell into serious disrepair after the Reformation. The church had some renovations during the 17th century to fix the building as well as add a flat ceiling inside the church. In 1723, the church was sold during the Norwegian church sale when the King sold the churches in Norway to pay off debts from the Great Northern War. The church was then owned by a private owner who was responsible for the upkeep of the building. Together with more than 300 other parish churches across Norway, it was a polling station for elections to the 1814 Norwegian Constituent Assembly which wrote the Constitution of Norway. This was Norway's first national elections. Each church parish was a constituency that elected people called "electors" who later met together in each county to elect the representatives for the assembly that was to meet in Eidsvoll later that year. By the mid 1800s, the church was in seriously bad shape and a major renovation was planned. In 1848–1851, the church was rebuilt using designs by Johan Henrik Nebelong. This rebuilding was strongly criticized afterwards. This was one of the first major restorations of a medieval building and there was little experience with and understanding of the construction of stave churches among architects in general and from the newly started Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments, which approved the plans. After the rebuilding, the interior appeared in a distinctly empire style, and there were sometimes major construction engineering problems due to moisture and fungal damage.

There is a legend telling about the construction of the church and how it was built in three days. Five farmers (Raud Rygi, Stebbe Straand, Kjeik Sem, Grut Grene and Vrang Stivi) from Heddal had made plans for a church, and they decided to have it built.