Borgund Stave Church
The best-preserved of Norway's stave churches, built around 1180 at Borgund in Sogn and never drastically altered since. Its stacked tiers of steep gabled roofs, four carved dragon-head finials, and decorated west portal are the classic image of the stave church, and the interior keeps medieval furnishings, runic graffiti cut by medieval visitors, and one of the oldest surviving altars in Norway. The building stands today much as its builders left it, its timber frame and tarred shingles intact, and it has served as the model for church designs and for the stave-church revival of the 19th cent