Urnes Stave Church

Built around 1130 on the eastern shore of the Lustrafjorden and still standing where it was raised, this is believed to be the oldest stave church of its kind, and parts of its timber are older still, cut in the latter half of the eleventh century and reused from the church before it. Excavation in 1956 found two earlier churches on the same ground. Inside are cylindrical columns and semi-circular arches on a basilica plan; outside, the north portal carries the carving so distinctive that art historians named a whole Viking-age style after it. UNESCO listed the church in 1979.