Heddal Stave Church 1.0

About 30 years ago, Scientific American published a structural study of the stave churches of Norway. Even though they resemble their stone-made cousins, they are not strong in compression, but have their primary strength in resistance to racking. Even more incredible, for wood structures, is their resistance to rot. Wood in air does not rot, and these master builders knew just how to keep water away from the structure. Some of the wood in these great works is eight hundred years old! As an interesting aside, it's pretty easy to tell the occasional replaced elements, because they tend to split. The original builders would top and then girdle the very best trees, and then let them dry in place for years, bark on, before they would fell them, and then building with that absolutely stable wood.

I am so happy that you have given us a place of God which I have come to love, but which I will never see. Thank you--so deeply I thank you.