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Scandinavian Heritage Park

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1990 established. 1020 S. Broadway
  • Stave church (Photograph by Steve C. Martens)

Local pride in Scandinavian heritage is commemorated annually with a popular Norsk Høstfest cultural celebration, promoting the traditions of five Scandinavian cultures. The park includes several reproductions of traditional building types as well as landscape features commemorating Nordic heritage. The stabbur (storage building) is a replica of a storehouse from a farm near Telemark, Norway. Traditional Nordic woodworking themes are reinterpreted in the contemporary design of the visitors’ center (1997, Warren Tvenge). The triangular roof of the Nordic Pavilion for the Arts (2003, H. L. “Bud” Hoeffel) is supported by large wood beams and concrete pillars covered with stone. The stave church (stavkirke) is a full-sized replica of the medieval wooden Gol Church (c. 1250) in the district of Hallingdal, Norway, that was later relocated to the Norsk Folksmuseum in Oslo. The load-bearing posts (stafr in Old Norse, stav in Norwegian) have lent their name to the building type. Because so many medieval stave churches in northern Europe have been lost, the replicas in the Dakotas and Minnesota are a welcome reminder of this building type.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Steve C. Martens and Ronald H. L. M. Ramsay
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Data

What's Nearby

Downtown Commercial District
Ward County Courthouse
Bruce M. Van Sickle Federal Building (U.S. Post Office and Courthouse)
Capital Financial Services Building (First National Bank)
Lillian and Coleman Taube Museum of Art (Union National Bank and Annex)

Citation

Steve C. Martens and Ronald H. L. M. Ramsay, "Scandinavian Heritage Park", [Minot, North Dakota], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/ND-01-WD13.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of North Dakota

Buildings of North Dakota, Steve C. Martens and Ronald H. L. M. Ramsay. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015, 141-141.

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