Hvalsey Church

Hvalsey Church (Template:Lang-da) is the ruins of an old Norse church, which is situated in the fjord of Hvalsey (Qaqortukulooq), not far from Qaqortoq, the largest city in the south of Greenland.

The architecture seems very related to similar Norse buildings from the 1300s. The church is the area which Erik the Red named "Asturbygd", the Eastern Settlement, when the Vikings settled in Greenland in around 985. There is no sign of an older church below it, but the building stones could have been reused from older churches. In the book, "Flatøbogen", which dates from 1390 on Iceland, it is stated that Hvalsey Church was the 11th of 12 churches built in the Eastern Settlement. The church is believed to have been in use until the end of the 14th century. The church ruin is the best preserved building from the Norse period, and is remarkably well built from ashlar stone, which is the reason why it survives. The Icelandic churches from the same period are all gone, because they were mostly built from timber or grass turf.

The stones are carefully laid and fitted. Some of the stones weighs between 4 and 5 tonnes, and some even more. Mortar was also used, but it is not known if it was used between the stones or only as plaster on the outside walls. The mortar was made from crushed shells so the church would have been white when built. Qaqortoq means "the white place", and the name could have been derived from the curch of Hvalsey, which would have been the dominant building within the town at the mouth at the nearby fjord, where Erik the Red's "Brattahlid", and the bishop's seat "Garder" were also situated.

The church measures 16 by 8 metres (52 by 26 ft), and the walls are around 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in) thick. The window openings are wider on the inside; a detail not recognised from Icelandic churches, but well known in early churches in Britain which may have been the source of this building type. The gables stand about 5 to 6 metres (16 to 20 ft) tall, and were originally about 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) taller. The long walls are around 4 metres (13 ft) tall, and again have been taller. The roof was probably been made of timber and covered in grass turf. The foundation on which the church is built is made of the same material as the church itself, but the architect has failed to remove the grass turf. This is one of the main reasons that the church has sunk unevenly, so the walls no longer stand.

A restoration of the church has been done, but there has been no attempt at rebuilding, only the prevention of further decay. The government of Greenland has applied to have the church approved as a UNESCO world heritage site. The Church of Hvalsey is also the last place where documented knowledge of the Norse in Greenland exists. On the 16 September 1408 Thorstein Olafssøn married Sigrid Bjørnsdatter in the Church of Hvalsey. After this incident no knowledge exists of where the Norse went, but Hvalsey and the Eastern Settlement was from this time still a functional society. 315 years later, in 1723, Hans Egede was the first European to see the place again when he travelled south trying to find any surviving Norse. He described the church ruin in Hvalsey and made a small resultless excavation. According to his description, the ruins were in a similar condition at that time as they are today.

In the Eskimo tradition of storytelling, there is a legend about Hvalsey. According this legend, open war between the Norse chief Ungortoq and the Eskimo leader K'aissape happened. The Eskimos made a massive attack on Hvalsey and burned down the Norse inside their houses, but Ungortoq escaped with his family. K'aissape conquered him after a long pursuit, which ended near Kap Farvel. However, according to archaeological studies, there is no sign of a conflagration, so this part of the legend seems like a later addition, but the confrontation itself could have happened.

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  The Church as it looks now

External links

• Pictures of the church