Challenge : More Icelandic and Finnish medieval architecture built from stone

Petike · Oct 22, 2012

I was always a bit disappointed that relatively few medieval stone churches and stone castles have survived on Iceland and in Finland to the present day. I recently read about the Hvalsey church in eastern Greenland, one of the few well-preserved Scandinavian churches from the Nordic island colonies such as Greenland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands. While comparable medieval Icelandic churches (built from timber or grass turf) are all but gone, Hvalsey is in surprisingly good shape for a stone ruin in the middle of the Arctic, and provides a rare detailed insight into what other such colonial churches might have looked like.

Reading all this interesting info, it got me thinking...

So, here's a small architectural challenge:
What would be needed to encourage the more widespread building of public stone buildings in medieval Iceland and Finland ? What could be the reasoning behind such ATL endeavours and what logistics and resources could be used for construction ?

Joyeux · Oct 22, 2012

Petike said:
What would be needed to encourage the more widespread building of public stone buildings in medieval Iceland and Finland ?

Less trees? A big forest fire? Some sort of tree disease (trees get diseases right?)?

yourworstnightmare · Oct 22, 2012

Joyeux said:
Less trees? A big forest fire? Some sort of tree disease (trees get diseases right?)?

Iceland doesn't even have trees.

Petike · Oct 22, 2012

yourworstnightmare said:
Iceland doesn't even have trees.

Check your facts first. It was covered in thick arctic groves of short trees when the Vikings came. It has been mostly deforested only since the High Middle Ages or so. And began being reforested in the past 200 years.

Fabilius · Oct 22, 2012

Petike said:
Check your facts first. It was covered in thick arctic groves of short trees when the Vikings came. It has been mostly deforested only since the High Middle Ages or so. And began being reforested in the past 200 years.

The sagas claim Iceland was heavily forested and lots of placenames indicate that, but some geologists have doubted how accurate that is. There are many unforested yet unsettled areas in Iceland too. Not to split hairs though.

In the 14th century there was built a huge wooden church at Skálholt, the center of the Icelandic church even today.

Here is possible reconstruction:

That is also a bit contested. The church burnt down but lots of wooden churches have remained in Norway and Sweden from same period. (Although arsony in modern times has taken a few down). It´s a factor of luck.

But I´d have loved real rock churches using material from Iceland. Medieval lavarock cathedral would be nice.

But these guys weren´t out for originality. The church made money on selling fish south and bought lumber instead. They wanted their church to be european.

Petike · Oct 22, 2012

Fabilius said:
They wanted their church to be european.

Well, European in a sense of being up to Scandinavian standards of church building, since at least half of all European medieval churches were the work of masons.