Hopperstad Stave Church

Hopperstad Stave Church is a stave church, just outside the village of Vikøyri in Vik Municipality, Sogn og Fjordane county, Norway. The church is currently owned by the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments. The two old parishes of Hopperstad and Hove was abolished in 1875, and replaced by the new, united, Vik parish. The new Vik Church was finished in 1877, and the two middle age churches of Hopperstad and Hove have sice then been museum churches. Vik parish is a part of Indre Sogn deanery in the Diocese of Bjørgvin.The stave church is assumed to have been built around the year 1130 and still stands at its original location. In 1997, a series of samples from the logs were collected for dendrochronological dating of the church. A total of seven samples produced an estimate for the construction ranging from 1034 to 1116 and resulted in no definite conclusion. The only possible conclusion is that this is one of the oldest stave churches still standing.