The story starts with King Olav II, who was the leader of the country from 1015 to 1028. The King died in 1030 (dying in battle probably helped his legacy) and was buried there. Work on the church started in 1070, and took about 230 years to finish. You can guess why. The structure was a Catholic cathedral in 1152, but changed sides to the Protestants in 1537. If you've been to some old churches in Europe, you realize that renovations are part of the deal when it comes to these places. This has had a number of them as well over the years, in part because of a couple of fires.
It is the traditional place for the consecrations of new Kings in Norway. It's also the northernmost cathedral in the world.
But the best story about the place is one of the newest. It seems that there is a tradition that says when a statue of a person needs major repairs, a real person serves as a model for the replacement. In this place, Archangel Michel lost his head in the 1960s, and a replacement was needed. So who did the artist, Kristofer Leirdal, pick in 1965 as the model?
Bob Dylan. Yes, that Bob Dylan.
We visited on Sunday morning, so we weren't allowed in the place. But there's always a video.
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