Fantoft Stave Church

Fantoft Stave Church (Norwegian: Fantoft stavkirke) is a reconstructed stave church in the Fana borough of the city of Bergen, Norway.

The church was originally built in Fortun in Sogn, a village near inner or eastern end of Sognefjord around the year 1150. In the 19th century the church was threatened by demolition, as were hundreds of other stave churches in Norway. The church was bought by consul Fredrik Georg Gade and saved by moving it in pieces to Fantoft near (now in) Bergen in 1883.

On 6 June 1992 the church was destroyed by arson, the first in a series of church burnings related to the early Norwegian black metal scene. The fire was initially thought to have been caused by lightning or an electrical failure. A short film clip of the church fire is shown in the 2009 documentary Until the Light Takes Us. The burnt remains of the church appear on the cover of the 1993 Burzum album Aske (Norwegian for Ashes). According to Varg Vikernes, the sole member of Burzum, the church was burned as an act of retaliation against Christianity for placing a church on sacred, pagan grounds.[1]

Reconstruction of an exact copy of the church was promptly initiated, and completed in 1997. Outside the church stands a stone cross from Tjora in Sola.

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