Stiklestad Church

Historie

Stiklestad Church is a parish church in the municipality of Verdal in Nord-Trøndelag county, Norway. It is located in the village of Stiklestad. The church is part of the Stiklestad parish in the Sør-Innherad deanery in the Diocese of Nidaros. The stone church building was completed in 1180. It was designed by Archbishop Øystein Erlendsson and it seats about 520 people.HistoryThe church was built at the site of the Battle of Stiklestad. During the battle, St. Olaf received three severe wounds—in the knee, in the neck, and the final mortal blow through the heart—and died leaning against a large stone. The church building is assumed to have been erected on the exact spot where St. Olaf was killed during that battle and that stone is supposedly still inside the altar of the church.The Stiklestad Church is the namesake of the Stiklestad United Lutheran Church in Minnesota, United States, established by Norwegian emigrants in 1897.