The Stavkirke

Step onto the Stavkirke property and be transported to a simpler and more pastoral time. Walk over the bridge, through the woods, and into the clearing to find yourself aside a peaceful medieval stave church. But the Stavkirke is more than a beautifully designed and expertly crafted Norwegian church in the woods of Washington Island. It’s a tribute to a people, to a heritage, to a way of life that, though waning in the modern age, persists in small pockets all across rural America. You just have to know where to look—whether in the culinary traditions and cultural celebrations, in the surnames and place-names, or in the slightly out-of-the-way temples in the woods.