Wednesday 7th July 2010
I spent most of today in church. Not really intended, but that is the way it sort of turned out.
I had already passed the cathedral a couple of times and have been impressed by the huge front wall of the building. It rises high with several rows of at least life sized statues spread across it. Yet despite the great size of the front wall, the actual entrance door is tiny.
In many ways the cathedral is the heart of the city. It is actually called Nidaros Cathedral, with Nidaros being the original name of the town site. It is the largest church in Norway and the largest in fact in Scandinavia. It is the most northern cathedral anywhere apparently. I am happy to accept that as I am sure it has been checked out by someone.
The cathedral is interesting in that it combines two distinct styles in its construction. The earlier parts are Romanesque and the later Gothic. And thanks to the free English guide who explained it, I now know the way to spot the differences. First Romanesque used the walls to to support the roof. Therefore the windows in the walls were always small so that the wall retained the strength to hold the roof up. Figures tended to be stylized and often grotesque. With Gothic, the walls did not bear so much weight. The real strength came from the pillars outside the walls which carried the beams. Consequently the windows could be larger resulting in a lighter interior. Figures were more lifelike. So with this information take in I was able to spot the differences.
The church was originally built over the grave of Saint Olav with the construction commencing in 1070. Over the years the building had to be enlarged to meet the numbers of pilgrims arriving. Even today it is still a pilgrimage centre and there is certainly a steady flow of visitors throughout the day.
As I understand it, Olav was a king or prince but so unpopular he had to escape to Russia. After a few years the king of Norway died and Olav decided to return to claim the throne. He arrived with an army of 6000 but was met by an opposing force of 9000. He lost and was killed. Two of his followers decided that he still needed a decent burial,but no one wanted to have him buried in their area. So secretly they buried him at Nidaros.
Quite soon miracles began to happen around the grave site. Sick people were healed and a spring of fresh water appeared. Pilgrims started coming because although they did not know who was buried here they decided that he must be a very holy person. After a year of all this the Church got involved and the southern bishops had the grave opened to see who it was. They found the body still fresh and in a condition as if it was still alive. Ah! Another miracle! So he was canonized and became St Olav.
Well that's the first part of the story or legend and you can believe it if you want too. Obviously over the centuries lots of people have. I might add that at one stage of Norway's history it was ruled by a Danish king who wanted to get rid of the national symbolism attached around St Olav. So he had him secretly reburied in another location which may still be somewhere under the cathedral floor. Even if they found a grave they would have no way of telling if it was the right one apparently.
In the original 1070 church, the altar was built right on top of the grave and a solid silver shrine was put there. However at the Reformation the Danish king who had switched to Luther's teachings confiscated all the church wealth including the shrine and had it melted down. All that remains in Trondheim is the king's receipt for it noting that it weighed 90 pounds and also had some precious stones attached. Rumor has it that the Danish crown still includes some of these jewels.
Around the altar there is an octagonal screen which is supposed to go right back to the Middle Ages.It sort of protected St Olav's shrine from the pilgrims. Incidentally in the church about half was screened off and just the priests and VIPs could go into that area, The common person was kept back.
I also learnt that the north side stain glass windows empahsised blue and the south side emphasised red. This is because the widows tell the whole Bible story and the red emphasises the work of Christ. In the early days the pictures helped the illiterate to understand something of the Bible. Above the entrance doorway is a 9 metre round Rose window. This becomes increasingly red during the day as the sun moves around to shine through it. Quite clever glass work I thought. Apparently it has 10,000 pieces of glass in its pattern.
At 1 pm I was able to listen to a 20 minute organ recital on the cathedral's smaller organ and then at 5:40 pm I went to a sort of evensong service in which the large organ with 9000 pipes was played. It has its various groups of pipes spread around the church building so that it can produce quite special effects – sound in the round. Actually I discovered a third cathedral organ. This was a tiny pipe organ in a portable box. It didn't have many pipes and I found it in a small side chapel.
During the day I also visited the old Archbishop's Palace which adjoins the cathedral. This had a museum displaying the Norwegian Royal Regalia – of which there does not appear to be very much. I saw two crowns and a coronet a few scepter and orbs, a sword of state and a gown and that was about it.
Next came the Palace Museum in which they house bits and pieces of the original buildings. The main tower was set on fire by lightning around the 1700's and collapsed onto the largest part of the building and demolished it. It stayed that way for a century or so. The museum contains remnants of the original Palace walls just as they were uncovered. Also in its discovered position is the archbishop's Mint where he produced coinage in competition with the King. The floor or tiles and wood is kept wet to maintain it in the condition it was found in.
A military museum shows information and sample equipment from much of Norway's military activity over a 1000 years. It includes the work of the Resistance during WW2.
So it did become quite a full day.
But I did have some time to wander around several of the nearby narrow streets. They must be still in the Mediaeval position and narrow width. Some very colourful houses along them. I headed for a square tower I had seen in the distance and I turned out to be the local Anglican Church. Lots of wood carved figures around the main altar.
Then into the market square which is actually round, where the concert stage was in use for performances by younger artists. Most of the audience and in fact most of the people in the square were young girls. Several sponsors' stalls had give a ways and they were very popular, especially the ice cream give a ways from an electronics display stand. I couldn't spend a lot of time here as I wanted to get back to the 5:40 pm service. Despite it being officially a service with Bible reading and prayer and the church being shut, there were still lots of camera welding tourist groups coming in the side door and wandering around. I don't think the attendants were impressed and they got quite annoyed when someone's flash went off despite clear notices saying 'no flash'.
So back to the hostel and a dinner of meat balls and salad.
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