Bergen Cathedral

Bergen Cathedral (Bergen domkirke) is a cathedral in the city of Bergen in Vestland county, Norway. It is the episcopal seat of the Church of Norway's Diocese of Bjørgvin as well as the seat of the "Bergen domkirke" parish and the seat of the Bergen domprosti (arch-deanery). It is part of the Church of Norway. The first recorded historical reference to this church is dated 1181. It retains its ancient dedication to Saint Olaf. The cathedral seats about 600 people.

The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1181, when the peasant chief Jon Kutiza attacked King Sverre in Bergen. According to Sverris saga, some of Sverre's men then fled into the church (then known as Olavskirken because it was dedicated to Saint Olaf). At that time, the church was probably a regular parish church, but later, during the reign of King Haakon IV of Norway (1217–63), Franciscan friars must have taken over the church and built a friary by it. The medieval cathedral was instead Christ Church at Bergenhus Fortress, a medieval royal residence in Bergen. The first church built here had a long church design in the Romanesque style. The nave measured about 20 by 13 metres (66 ft × 43 ft) and the choir was 9 by 18 metres (30 ft × 59 ft) including the apse. Not much else is known about the first stone church on this site. The old church burned down in 1248 during a large city-wide fire and afterwards, a new stone church was built on the same site. Part of the north wall of the old church was salvaged and incorporated into the new church design. There was another fire in the church in 1270 and Magnus Lagabøte financed the repairs afterwards. In 1463, it burned down again, but it was not fully reconstructed until the 1550s. In 1537, it was decided that the church would be the new cathedral for the diocese to replace the old cathedral at Holmen which was demolished in 1531. Despite being declared the cathedral of the post-Reformation Protestant diocese, the church was not fully rebuilt after the fire in 1463. Bergen's first Protestant bishop, Gjeble Pederssøn, arranged for the completion of the church and it was completed before his death

Church data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).