St. Olav's Chapel

Olaf the Saint was canonized in 1031, i.e. before the great split in the church in 1054, and is therefore considered a saint also in the Russian Orthodox tradition.

The Orthodox Church in Norway worked for several years with plans to build an Orthodox chapel at Stiklestad. The work gained momentum in 2013 when Saint Olga's congregation in Oslo received an offer from the Orthodox monk Father Jonah Føien to take over an Orthodox chapel that stood on his farm in Folldal and which had already been dedicated to Saint Olav in 2003.

St. Olga's congregation then approached the Stiklestad National Cultural Center (SNK) and the landowner, Verdal municipality, with a request as to whether it might be possible to move this chapel to Stiklestad. The inquiry was followed up with a close collaboration between Verdal municipality and SNK and the Russian Orthodox Church to facilitate the chapel being built at Stiklestad. The plot of land on which the chapel stands was blessed by Archbishop Mark of Yegorevsk in a solemn ceremony during Olsok in 2013. The chapel was then erected with the help of volunteers within the Russian Orthodox Church.

The chapel was originally a storehouse from the 1750s, which in 2003 had been consecrated as a chapel. In connection with the change of use, an altar extension was added to the original stable. The chapel is also equipped with an onion dome on the roof. The furnishings in the chapel are gifts given by individuals and congregations in Norway and the rest of the Nordic region.

The chapel was inaugurated on Saint Olav's memorial day, 16 October 2014. Thus, the three largest church families within Christendom are represented through their own church buildings in Stiklestad, which all convey their part of the Olav legacy.