Nordland - Norway - page 716

Activities, Courses & Tours
1 Grottebadet B3
Sleeping
2 Clarion Collection Hotel Arcticus C1
3 Grand Nordic Hotel B3
4 Thon Hotel Harstad B2
Eating
5 Café & Restaurant De 4 Roser C4
6 Hoelstuen B3
7 Umami B2
Sights & Activities
Most sights are on the Trondenes Peninsula , some 2.5km north of town.
Trondenes Kirke CHURCH
( GOOGLE MAP ; 10am-2pm Mon-Fri Jul-mid-Aug, variable rest of year)
Trondenes Church was built by King Øystein around 1150. For ages it was the northern-
most church in Christendom, and still lays claim to being Norway's northernmost medieval
stone church. Originally of wood, the current stone structure replaced it around 1250 and
quickly came to double as a fortification against Russian aggression. Absurdly for one of
northern Norway's major cultural sights, it's often locked so do check with the tourist of-
fice.
Aside from the robust beauty of the structure itself, the church's jewels are the three
finely wrought altars at the east end, all venerating Mary. Most interesting is the central
one of the Virgin surrounded by her extended family with infants in arms and children tug-
ging at skirts on all sides. Glance up, too, at the pair of trumpet-wielding cherubs, precari-
ously perched atop the main pillars of the rood screen.