Today, Old Uppsala is a place of ancient Nordic reminiscence with three royal burial hills and one sessions-hillock. Originally these hills formed part of the Uppsala boulder ridge and the construction of the hills probably dates back to 500 AC. During the following one thousand years Old Uppsala remained an important place as a sessions district.
The church of Old Uppsala was built on the location where there was once a wooden pagan temple. Most likely this was also the place (or it may have been in Uppsala itself by The Grove of Odin/Odinslund) for the most spectacular pagan rite - the 'blot' - which included animal and human sacrifice, held for nine days every ninth year.
The Christian church in Old Uppsala was built in the 1130's. In 1164, Stefan, a Cistercian monk came to Gamla Uppsala, where he became the first archbishop of Sweden.
Following are thumbnail images from the church and nearby hills. Click on the image to see a larger version of the image.
One of the Burial Mounds at Gamla Uppsala
The Bell Tower sits in the cemetary to the left of the Church
The Church of Old Uppsala viewed from the front
The Church of Old Uppsala viewed from the rear.
A runestone is embedded in the wall of the church.
A closeup view of the runestone
The interior of the church has several frescos, including this one that is partially obscured.
I wish I knew more about architecture -- I have visited a number of the churches on Orkney, a Norse "outpost", but I don't know what to look for in terms of similarities, development, etc. Still, Uppsala is impressive on its own; and, I'll be sure to show Sue and the kids!
Posted by: Steven on September 3, 2002 09:51 AMI'll be traveling to Norway this weekend. I hope to capture images there as well that may provide some comparison. I have additional images that I've taken that I'll work to make available.
- jwa
I understand that Orkney bears affinities with the Bergen area; it seems that the name "Hordaland" is related to all this, but I forget if that's a "mainland" name relating to Orkney, or vice-versa. Still, when my father first went to Kirkwall in Orkney, it "spoke" to him (he said Orkney was what he had been looking for all this life), so there must be some kind of cultural resonance. His grandfather was from an island just off Bergen.
Posted by: Steven Blackburn on September 6, 2002 08:28 AM