Provided by:
Stiftelsen Nordmøre Museum
Welcome to the Borgund Nøkkelstad, a cooperation between Borgund church and the Medieval Museum. In this audio guide you will get to know the medieval city and the town of Borgund, which in the 13th century was the largest city between Bergen and Trondheim.
To find more content and listen to free audio guides, download the Voice of Norway app.
«Father, you hold everything up. I thank you for this holy place – Borgund Church. Thank you for creating us and the world in which we live. Thank you for the woods, fjords and mountains. You know and love us, help us to take care of each other and everything that you have created. Amen. » You are now standing next to Borgund Church, one of the most important and historic churches in Sunnmøre. As it stands today, the church is built in a mixed style with romanesque-gothic traits. It is built in the shape of a cross. The arms of the cross that reach East and West are built over the walls of the old St. Peter’s church which stood here in the Middle Ages. And part of the wall here is from that church. The cross arms of the ‘new church’ run from North to South, building started in 1632. Amongst other things marble from the old Margareta church was used in the construction. In April 1904 the church burnt down, just a couple of months after the great fire of Ålesund. It was rebuilt in the same place, mainly in the style of the old church. A lot of the old walls were reused. The church was consecrated again in August 1907, three years after the fire. The aim was to recreate the beautiful wooden carvings inside the church, in the same style as they were before the fire, in Baroque style. The altar towards the East is from the Middle Ages and has a small relic room in the altar plate. The organ from 1981 has 3 manuals and 35 harmonics, and is considered to be one of the best in the area. Today, Borgund with it’s church and Medieval Museum is a key stop on the Coastal Pilgrim Path, which runs from Egersund to Nidaros.
The Medieval Museum,which is now one of the museums in the VITI foundation opened in 1987. It is built around the remains of three houses from the Middle Ages. The largest of these is called Årestova. An Årestove was a house that had the fireplace in the middle of the house. The placing of the fireplace means that we can date the house to the Viking Age. The house is relatively large, and was maybe used for gatherings, serving food and sleeping. The other two houses have the fireplaces in the wall, which tells us that these houses were built later in the Middle Ages. On the ledge that runs along the inside of the outerwall, there is an exhibition of some of the finds that have been made at the market place, and signs which tell about life in Borgund. In addition, there is a meeting room and a small kitchen. Outside the museum building you can see many poles sticking up out of the earth. These were put down to mark where archeologists found post holes. Here there were rows of large buildings down towards the sea/harbour. These could have been houses or warehouses for goods that were to be shipped further.
Borgund was a main trading and religious centre in the early Middle Ages. And it is mentioned many times in Saga literature. The town or market place grew from Viking times and was probably at its largest around the year 1300. At that time the place had a definate town like feeling. It was easy to arrive here by boat from all directions and goods that were to be transported further to Bergen were loaded up here. Craftsmen sold their wares here, and we can assume that that it was bustling both in the harbour and in the market place. Borgund was also known as a large Parish, consisting of four churches. All the churches were built in stone. This shows that the town was relatively prosperous. Pilgrims hiking towards Nidaros would quite likely have stopped here for a few days before they continued on their way. In modern times Borgund has become a key point on the Coastal Pilgrim Path. In the later Middle Ages, Borgund lost some of its status as a central trading place. The black death, a change in climate and a downturn in fishing could be some of the reasons for this. After 1570 there is no mention of the town in written sources. It was forgotten about and after some years the town of Borgund also disappeared from people’s memories. The first excavation here, was of Margareta Church in 1912, but excavations only speeded up after 1953 when the graveyard at Borgund church was expanded. Over the next 40 years there were several periods of excavations and all together over 45 000 objects have been discovered here.
The ruins that you are standing next to now are the remains of the Margereta Church, which was probably built around 1100 and was in use until the middle of the 1500s. It was during renovation work in the spring of 1912, that the tenants at Borgund vicarage came across the remains of an old wall. This was reported to the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments in Bergen. They sent the architet and archeologist Gerhard Fischer to Borgund. He examined the wall and it was establised that these were the remains of the Church wall. The excavation of the Church started in April of the same year. This was the first archeolgical excavation in Borgund and actually the first Medieval excavation in Norway. Fischer made precise drawings of what he had found. There were many graves around the church. Four people were also buried under the floor of the church. The Church was likely built by foreign stone masons. The walls were clad with marble. It is possible that this stone was from a marble seam on Humla, an island a little further into the fjord. Some of the marble from here was reused when St. Peter’s church was expanded in the 1630s. In recent times there have also been finds in and next to the church walls. Recently, during removal of grass and turf two dice made from bone have been discovered.
In the Middle Ages the water stood a great deal higher than it does today and it was was possible to sail through Klokkarsundet and into Katavågen. Finds on both land and in the sea at Klokkarsundet show that there was a harbour area here with boathouses and piers. We can imagine the trading ships, mooring here to load goods, for example dried fish which was to be transported to Bergen and further onwards around Europe. People sailed and rowed in from the fjords and islands to buy, sell and exchange goods. Those who came here for the first time probably marvelled at all that they saw. If they couldn’t find a place to moor at the pier then they would just pull their boats ashore. From the harbour there were paths and roads up to the town. The air in the town probably stank of dried fish and other strong smells that the Middle Ages were renowned for.
In the Middle Ages you could sail into Katavågen, both from Nørvasundet in the North and from Klokkarsundet in the South. Katavågen was a safe harbour in all types of weather. Today it is shallow here, but in the Middle Ages the water was a good deal higher. Most of the bottom is covered in a thick layer of mud. Very little of the bottom has been examined by archeologists. Regardless there have been many finds here, amongst other things a number of boat nails, which can indicate that larger boats were built here in Katavågen. The inlet into Klokkarsundet was not especially deep, and in the later Middle Ages trading ships become bigger and ran deeper. In addition, an uplift in the land made it more shallow. When yachts and broad rowing boats took over from the trading ships then Katavågen and Borgund were no longer suitable harbours for larger boats
Borgund was a very important church site in the Middle Ages. At the most there were 4 churches here at the same time. All four were probably built in the 12th century. Remains of three of these have been found, whilst the last is only mentioned in written sources. Today, you can still see the ruins of the Margareta church, which lies on the headland down towards Klokkarsundet. This church was in use right up until the reformation. St. Peter’s Church, which was the parish church after the reformation, stood where today’s Borgund Church stands. You can find remains of St. Peter’s church in the walls of the transept that runs in the East-West direction. The two other churches, St. Matthew’s Church and Christ Church, are mentioned in Aslak Bolt’s land registery from the 1430s. They were referred to as disused Churches. The fact that there was a Christ Church in Borgund is very interesting. Christ Church was a name that was used for Bishops’ or Cathedral Churches. In an English overview of Norwegian Bishops from the second half of the 12th century, there was mention of a Bishop Tore from Borgund. So maybe there was for a short period a Bishop seated here?
When you walk along the path between the Medieval Museum and Sunnmøre Museum, you cross the old cemetery which in the Middle Ages lay below St. Peter’s Church towards Katavågen. Excavations in this area started in 1965. Around 300 graves have been found here. They are tightly spaced and several deep. The graves have an East to West orientation, and this together with a coin found in one of the graves has led archeologists to date the graves to the 1000s, early Christian times. Contents of graves can tell us a lot about how society at that time took care of their dead. We can get an insight into faith and traditions through the burial customs. We can also learn a little about social ranking, through the location and form of the graves. Through examinations of skeletons and teeth we can learn something about living conditions, sickness and general health at that time. This is something that the Borgund kaupang project will give us an insight into. Casts were made of many of the graves, with thought for later dissemination. These casts are kept in a store at the University Museum in Bergen.
During the winter of 1028/29 Olav Haraldsson was on the run. He had made himself unpopular in the country, and this was exacerbated when one of his men, Aslak Fitjarskalle took the life of the lieutenant and Great Chief Erling Skalgsson during a battle in South Western Norway. Olav fled North with the army on his tail, but as he got closer to Sunnmøre he came to know that another army was approaching from the North. Some of his men, including Aslak Fitjarskalle spent the night in Borgund. Here, down by the harbour Aslak was killed by Vigleik Arnesson, who was the grandson of Erling Skjalgsson. It is said that his blood flowed out over a stone, and that that stone remains red to this day. According to the Sagas Olav Haraldsson sailed further into the fjord finally coming to a stop in Valldal. There he set fire to his ship and continued on foot over the mountains. If you would like to follow in Olav’s footsteps from Valldal, you can walk the Valldalsleden which is a part of the pilgrims path to Nidaros.
The most important product for Borgund was dried fish. Every year a huge number of cod came into Borgundfjord in order to spawn in the fjord. This is how it has been since the beginning of time and it is one of the main reasons that people settled here. During Medieval times the cod were caught, dried on slabs and sent by boat to Bergen. From Bergen they were exported further to England, Germany and other European countries. During the Middle Ages large quantities of dried fish were produced for export. In Europe there were strict rules that forbade people to eat meat for a large part of the year. Therefore, the Norwegian fish were a welcome supplement to the diet. But fishing in Borgund fjord is not just something that happened in bygone times. Without fail, the cod still come into the fjord every year from the end of February. Both amateur fishermen and career fishermen partake in catching them and many companies take visitors out to experience this adventure.