Today’s The World Around Us will be presented in Norwegian and English, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Norwegian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Thai.

Welcome, loving viewers, to The World Around Us. Today, we will visit the largest medieval cathedral in Northern Europe, the Nidarosdomen Cathedral in Norway.

In the western part of the Scandinavian penninsula, the Nidaros Cathedral elegantly stands as Norway’s national sanctuary in the charming, picturesque city of Tromdheim. The spectacular cathedral was built in memorial of Norway’s patron saint, Olaf the Holy, who lived from 995 to 1030. Today, it is still the most popular pilgrimage site in northern Europe, welcoming over 400,000 visitors from around the world annually.

I believe that people in Trondheim are very proud of the Nidaros Cathedral. Some goes inside it to use it or to participate, while others only look at it from the outside and see that it’s a part of the city. I think that we are proud of it because it’s a part of the Norwegian identity, and the identity of the members in the native church.

There are many young people walking to get here also, groups of candidates for confirmation and school students, who will get a taste of walking a bit and longing to get here and be inside the Holy space; that it’s actually a special space.

In the Middle Ages this was a Catholic Church. Today it’s a Protestant and also Ecumenical church, and twice on Sundays there are services here.

At first a wooden chapel located on the bank of Nidelva River, the Nidaros Cathedral completed its stone construction from 1070 to 1300. The main façade at the west wall shows the Jesus’ great sacrifice on Earth, while above it, Christ enthroned in glory in Heaven. Having been rebuilt many times over the centuries, the cathedral presents the visitors an astonishing architectural tapestry.

So here is a model of the first stave church that was built over Olaf's grave around 1035. The next model shows the early Norman church, the first stone building that was built here in 1070.

The cathedral was built between 1070 and 1320, and here is a model that shows what we think it looked like around 1320. We do not know really how high the west towers were, but, yes, the rest we know quite much about. Reformation came to Norway in 1537, and just before the Reformation, there was a large fire. Around, 1700. But then the cathedral was restored after 1869, and most of the cathedral was completed 100 years later.

The main reason of the restorations and pilgrimages is the dedication to Saint Olaf, who was Norway’s heroic King Olaf Haraldsson from 1015 to 1028, is buried in the vicinity. This has made the Nidaros Cathedral a sacred site.

Olaf was born in the year 995 and he was a Viking, a good Viking it’s been said, strong and brave and a good athlete. He was 12 years old when he went abroad on his first Viking tour, and at 19 years old he was baptized in Rouen in France. Olaf became convinced that Christianity was the right religion, and he went back to Norway, became King, and started bringing people to Christianity.

The interior of the cathedral is an uplifting joy. Entering the cathedral, one can immediately feel the sacred atmosphere. The main hall is spacious and open, with a hundred some elegant pillars that support the high vault, sublime arches. The statue of Jesus appears near the top of the central arch.

When visitors enter through the door of Nidaros Cathedral, they almost always become very quiet, because the atmosphere in this building is quite special. And many of the visitors like to walk up in front of the high altar and then sit down at one chair and have a quiet and peaceful time. Very often we have to remind people of the steps here because they keep looking upwards, because of the tremendous height of this cathedral.

Walking around, we can find traces of history everywhere, embedded in layers of reconstructions during the medieval and modern times. Yet they all have the same motif of the life of Jesus Christ.

There used to be a baptismal font here in the Middle Ages as well. It’s lost, but the foot piece remains, and that’s this part, up to here. So they actually made a copy of the medieval foot piece, and then they put a modern part on top of it.

Jesus being baptized by Saint John. While Saint John is pouring water over his head, you can see God’s finger pointing out of the sky telling that, “This is My Son, Jesus Christ.” And there’s an angel watching it.

The main altar is ornate and seems to be illuminated.

The altar that you see today is from 1882 and gift from Oscar II who was crowned here. And it’s inspired from the descriptions of how Olaf’s shrine looked in the Middle Ages. We think that his shrine was decorated with gemstones and silver and maybe it also had dragons on the sides. And in fact we think of the many shrines over each other, more and more decorated. The octagon, the shape of eight corners, is also a central form and this is often used in tomb churches.

It was like that in the Middle Ages where they would walk around the grave to Olaf the Holy. And some pilgrims still do the same thing; they would go around the octagon and feel like they’re a part of something bigger, both historically and spiritually.

We will be back soon to continue our tour of the marvelous Nidaros Cathedral. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

Welcome back to The World Around Us. The Nidaros Cathedral in the city of Trondheim, Norway was the seat of Catholic and Lutheran bishops. Until 1906, it was also the site where kings were crowned. Yet it began as a humble stave church around 1035, dedicated to Saint Olaf, later known as the national saint of Norway. The altar of Saint Olaf reveals the story of his life. He is depicted as a seed corn, which symbolizes the saint’s essence of growth and transformation.

This altar front shows motifs from Olaf’s legend. This altar front also shows the strong position that Olaf had in the Middle Ages, because it’s combined with the Evangelist symbols, and that is mostly Christ that we see in combination with these symbols. But here we find Olaf in the middle.

It is not a total surprise that precious artistic pieces in this historical pilgrimage site had traveled far.

The icon on the wall comes from Russia, and it’s made around the year 1500. So it’s at least 500 years old, but maybe even older than that. And it’s a portrayal of Christ. The picture is called “The Savior with a Wet Beard.” So you can see Christ with a wet beard.

And it was being used in the Russian Orthodox Church. And now in Orthodox Churches, people very often touch icons, or kiss them, in order to come in contact with the saint. It’s 500 years old, still very pretty. People say that when they move around the cathedral it feels like Jesus is staring directly at them, wherever they go.

One unforgettable sight of the Nidaros Cathedral is its huge, magnificent stained glass piece, the Rose Window. This 1930 glass art work decorates the western wall of the cathedral, inviting the afternoon sunlight to brighten the entire interior. v The rose window is modern. It’s a reconstruction and it was finished in 1930, so it’s quite new. But we do believe that there was a rose window there in the Middle Ages although we don’t know what it looked like.

Now this rose window, it has a diameter of eight meters but the entire window is 12 meters tall and it consists of 10,000 pieces of glass. And there is a red stone in the middle. It symbolizes Christ as the center of Christianity and red color spreading outwards symbolizes how Christianity is supposed to spread into the world.

A very well-known feature of the Nidaros Cathedral is the musical experience it offers. The sounds from the cathedral’s fantastic pair of organs echoes beautifully through the vaults of cathedral.

The cathedral has two historic organs. The oldest one is the Wagner organ from 1741, a baroque organ. And Johann Sebastian Bach’s music is often played on this organ. The other organ is the Steinmeyer organ from 1930, with more than 9,000 pipes. At the organ meditations, people like to come and sit and listen to the organ music and it is also a short service.

There is also a rich music life in the Nidaros Cathedral. Many people are choir members and also have played music here, and it’s also a pleasure to perform and attend the activities inside the Nidaros Cathedral.

In the Middle Ages when visitors came here, they often came by boat up the river here, and anchored up here. And then the first place that met them was the archbishop’s residence, and then the cathedral that was placed behind the archbishop's residence. You can almost call Trondheim the religious capital of Norway.

In 1997, the 640-km long pilgrimage route was opened. It starts from the ancient part of Oslo and ends at Nidaros Cathedral. Called Saint Olaf’s Way in Norwegian, the route revitalized a precious tradition.

I think people who are pilgrims today experience that they are following an old tradition from the Middle Ages, and that is special in itself. So I believe that many people seek out for pilgrimage because they want something different. They want to retreat. Something simple, a little bit quiet, get to know themselves and to know God. And then I think that when they get here, it’s like getting to the destination part of the pilgrimage. It will seem very immense.

I also think that it’s easier to enter the Nidaros Cathedral than many other churches because it has a huge space where you can pick your own corner where you can hide yourself a little bit, and some people really appreciate that, to be a little bit anonymous.

There is something about the history on the walls that makes you feel a little more humble and small. I believe you can find comfort in it, and think that there is something bigger. I believe the building symbolizes that God is bigger, and it is a part of something bigger.

Noble viewers, thank you for being with us on today’s The World Around Us. Please stay tuned for Words of Wisdom, coming up next, after Noteworthy News, here on Supreme Master Television. May peace and kindness be with you always.