https://www.facebook.com/pages/Alan-Heaths-History-Page/173472422695696
http://www.ceepackaging.com
twitter : @ceepackaging
https://www.facebook.com/pages/CEE-Packaging/135108923181666
Vang stave church was bought by the Prussian King and transferred from Vang in Norway and re-erected in 1842 in Brückenberg near Krummhübel in Germany, now Karpacz in the Karkonosze mountains of Poland.
The church is a four-post single-nave stave church originally built around 1200 in the parish of Vang in the Valdres region of Norway.
In 1832 the local council decided to pull down the stave church because it was too small and had become structurally unsafe.
The painter J. C. Dahl bought the church in 1841 in order to preserve it. The Crown Prince, later King Frederick William IV of Prussia, covered the costs of re-erecting it in Potsdam.
The task of supervising the dismantling was entrusted to the young German architect Franz Wilhelm Schiertz. In September the church was delivered to the harbour of Lærdalsøyri at the head of the Sognefjord, where they were loaded on board the Haabet, bound for Stettin. There the materials were transferred onto a barge for the last leg of the journey to Berlin, where they were stored during the winter in the courtyard of the Altes Museum.
The original plan had been to re-erect the church on the Pfaueninsel (Peacock Island) in Potsdam. But in the meantime, this plan was discarded in favour of a site at the remote village of Brückenberg near Krummhübel in the Riesengebirge, now the Karkonosze mountains, in the province of Schlesien. Leopold von Schaffgotsch of Warmbrunn, now Cieplice, donated the site.
In the spring of 1842 the materials were again taken by river barge up the Oder to the foothills, and from there by wagon to the mountain village of Krummhübel. The new site for the church lays 885 meters above sea level in Brückenberg, between Krummhübel and the peak of the Schneekoppe Mountain.
The foundation stone was laid on August 2, 1842 in the presence of King Friedrich Wilhelm himself. It was a demanding task for carpenters who had never seen the church, nor any stave church, to rebuild it correctly. In spite of excellent drawings, most of the materials were discarded. Only the main construction, consisting of sills, posts and wall plates, were made use of, in addition to the carved doorframes. All of the external gallery was built with new materials, and every wall plank was replaced.
The long lost apse was reconstructed, albeit with a very strange baroque roof. The gallery and the flèche were reconstructed, but several new windows without historical precedent were put in. The doorways were turned inside out, with the carvings facing inward. The decorated ceiling above the choir was not restored, probably because it seemed too Catholic in a Protestant church. All the original roof trusses were renewed.
The work took two years and the total cost amounted to more than 75 000 marks. On the King's birthday, October 15, 1843, the flèche with the date 1200 was raised. On July 27, 1844 Prince Frederick of the Netherlands together with huge crowds witnessed the consecration of "Die Bergkirche unseres Erlösers zu Wang" (The mountain church of Our Savior of Vang). The former owner J. C. Dahl was not present, but he was happy to know that his project had been realised. He was spared the burden of preserving only certain decorated elements, and pleased that "a fair likeness" had been rebuilt.
Now serving a Polish community, Wang church has become a major tourist attraction and is probably the world's most visited stave church with about 200 000 visitors each year.
The layout with four internal posts or staves is common to several stave churches in the Valdres region. But in the stave churches of Høre and Lomen they are incorporated into a construction with a raised roof above the central part of the nave, whereas the churches of Vang and Øye have ordinary saddle roofs, with no structural connection between the roof and the interior posts.
According to tradition, the church had been relocated once before at an earlier date, confirming the opinion of many scholars that it was much altered before leaving Vang. The Norwegian architect Arne Berg has after thorough examination of the rebuilt church concluded that the remaining original materials belonged to a stave church of the Sogn type with a raised roof above the central part of the nave. Dating evidence is, however, scant. He estimates it to have been built around 1200 — confirming the date inscribed in 1843.
Loading...
What sort of camera are you using these days.Sound and picture are fantastic!
llewesa100 5 months ago
@llewesa100 If only I could get rid of the shaky hand I would be there! This is a flip camera - unfortunately no longer produced. Quality is brilliant though - and TV quality!
alanheath 5 months ago
Very interesting. Thank you for the video response.
Kind greetings, Maria:-)
maaswater15 6 months ago 2
@maaswater15 Hello Maria! As far as I know this is the only one outside of Scandinavia - but I am sure you know more than I do. The story of how it was saved is quite curious and if it had not been for one artist then it would have been lost!
alanheath 6 months ago