Sogndal

Sogndal lies among the valleys and inlets on the northern side of the Sognefjord. Nearby Kaupanger takes its name from an old trading place, and its stave church recalls the settlement that grew beside the fjord. The wooden church was built around the end of the twelfth century, after an earlier church was lost when King Sverre's men burned the market place in 1184.

Its nave was lengthened during the Middle Ages and supported by additional wooden staves. The church remained a place of worship for the surrounding communities through the centuries that followed. In 1720 the judge Giert Anderssøn Heiberg obtained permission to build a private stone burial chapel against its northern wall, adding a family monument to the much older timber building.