Stavanger domkirke

Norway's oldest cathedral traces its origin to around 1100, when Bishop Reinald — likely arriving from Winchester, England — began construction in a strict Anglo-Norman Romanesque style, visible today in the building's massive columns and simple round arches. Stavanger's founding as a cathedral city is dated to 1125, under King Sigurd Jorsalfarer. A devastating fire in 1272 forced a major rebuild, and the reconstruction added a more soaring Gothic choir to the church's eastern end — leaving a building that visibly combines two distinct medieval architectural eras in one structure.