Viking period church ruins

Hvalsey Church Ruins

Hvalsey Church
Close to the town of Qaqortoq in South Greenland lie the ruins of Hvalsey Church, which are Greenland’s biggest and best-preserved ruins from the Viking period. The church was built of stone in the 14th century and measures 16 x 7 metres (52.5 x 22.75 feet). It is situated next to the ruins of a farm complex which is also from the Viking period, and thus provides a good insight into how the Norse settlers lived.

In the Vatican’s annals in Rome there is a historically significant account of a wedding between Thorstein Olafsson and Sigrid Bjørnsdatter in Hvalsey Church in 1408. The records also show that the last wedding guests travelled back to Iceland in 1410. This wedding is the last written evidence of the Viking settlers in Greenland.

Gardar head of crosier

Gardar Cathedral
Following the introduction of Christianity to Greenland at around the turn of the millennium, the religion became so powerful that a bishop was appointed in 1124, the young clergyman Arnald.

The impressive Episcopal residence, Gardar, was established shortly afterwards in the area known today as Igaliku, close to Narsarsuaq. The bishop was the country’s biggest landowner, and it was probably bishop Arnald who was responsible for establishing a monastery and convent in South Greenland.

The ruins of the cathedral and the bishop’s palace have been renovated during recent years and today make up an attractive relic of the Viking period in Greenland. The cathedral itself had dimensions of no less than 27 x 16 metres (88.5 x 52.5 feet), and was thus the biggest of all the churches in Greenland in the Middle Ages.

Today only the top of the foundations of the church and the bishop’s palace can be seen and a full reconstruction of the buildings has not yet been carried out as at Qassiarsuk.

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