Church

Being fascinated by the repeatedly appearing stave churches here in Norway, we couldn't resist visiting the largest stave church in Norway.

There it stood. A large, dark church, completely made of wood, surrounded by countless graves. Just moments before, it was visible under a strong rainbow, and now the sun, breaking through the clouds, shone upon it. One didn't need to believe in anything or anyone special to find it remarkably beautiful and unique.

Upon closer inspection, we discovered many wood carvings and other beautiful details.

Since we visited outside the season, we unfortunately couldn't visit the church from inside. However, we admired the surrounding area even more, noting once again that a church in Norway is never without a cemetery.

Each municipality has its own church, with its own cemetery.

The graves are partly very old, but well maintained. All graves take up approximately the same space. Family graves also consist of a gravestone and a small area with flowers in front, which the relatives are free to design. Everything else is maintained by the municipality. Something very interesting and commendable, in our opinion, is that every deceased person in their municipality receives a free grave for the next 20 years. Norwegians attach great importance to a place of mourning and believe that everyone has an equal right to it, whether rich or poor.

In addition, we found out that everyone in Norway has the right to be cremated and their ashes scattered in a beautiful place by their loved ones.

Once again, we were very impressed by the culture of Norway in this regard. It should be the same in Germany, don't you think?