Urnes Stave Church

Urnes Stave Church is a medieval wooden church in Ornes, Luster municipality, Vestland county, Norway, dating to the 12th century (commonly c. 1130). It is noted for its exceptional timber construction and carved ornament that defines the Urnes style of Viking-age art.

The church is a single-nave stave building of wood with a compact footprint and a multi-tiered roofline. Highlights include finely carved door and portal panels with interlaced animal motifs and original medieval wooden fittings that are unusually well preserved for a timber building of this age.

Construction took place in the 12th century on the site of earlier wooden churches; local craftsmen used vertical load-bearing staves and timber joinery. Over subsequent centuries it served as the parish church and has undergone repairs and conservation work to preserve the medieval fabric.

The church sits on a hillside above the western shore of the Lustrafjord, an arm of the Sognefjord, in western Norway. It is located in a rural fjord landscape within Luster municipality in Vestland county.

• Carved portal: The carved wooden portal on the west entrance is one of the best-preserved examples of the Norse 'Urnes style' of animal interlace carving.
• UNESCO status: Inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List for its outstanding preserved Romanesque wooden architecture and its influence on later Scandinavian art.