Gåra Stave Church

Gåra (Gaara) Stave Church (Nynorsk: Gåra stavkyrkje, Bokmål: Gåra stavkirke) was a smaller, single-nave (aisleless) stave church that stood on Gårahaugen (The Gåra hill), just outside the town of Bø in Telemark, now in Midt-Telemark municipality in Telemark county in Norway. The church was demolished in 1850. The church has sometimes been mistakenly called "Gvålakyrkja", but Gvåla is the old name for Valen, the neighboring farm to Gåra, and has therefore nothing to do with Gåra. This stave church was a so-called "lovekirke", a private votive church, and is said to have been very old. Its Old Norse name was Gordina kirkja and it is first mentioned in Bishop Eystein's land register from 1398, but had to be much older than this. According to this book, the church was consecrated to the Virgin Mary on September 8, which was also the church's feast day, but its year and age are unknown. Gåra Church probably did not have its own priest, but the priest of Bø Church came a few times a year to hold services. Matins were also held on Christmas Eve until 1627. In 2024, Vestfold and Telemark County Council and NIKU (Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research) published an interactive 3D model of Gåra Stave Church based on drawings by Andreas Faye (1824), where one can navigate around both inside and outside the church, with accompanying digital information boards.

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