Stavanger travel guide

Top 10 sights in Stavanger

Ranked by Wikipedia language editions — proven fame.

1. 

   1© TomasEE · CC BY 3.0

   Sverd i fjell

   Three bronze swords ten metres high driven into the rock at Hafrsfjord, unveiled in 1983 to mark the sea battle of about 872 in which Harald Fairhair united Norway. The largest sword stands for the victor and the two shorter ones for the defeated kings.

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2. 

   2© Mathieu Marquer from Paris, FRANCE · CC BY-SA 2.0

   Stavanger Cathedral

   The oldest cathedral in Norway still in use, begun about 1100 in Anglo-Norman Romanesque and given a Gothic choir after a fire in 1272. It stands between Breiavatnet lake and the harbour, and Stavanger was made a bishopric on its account.

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3. 

   3© Carlos Delgado · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Norwegian Petroleum Museum

   A museum on Norwegian oil and gas, opened in 1999 in a building of steel drums and concrete on the harbour meant to echo an offshore platform. Drilling equipment, a diving bell and an escape chute visitors can slide down cover an industry that began with the 1969 Ekofisk find.

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4. 

   4© Jarvin · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Tungenes Lighthouse

   A coastal lighthouse at Randaberg north of Stavanger, lit in 1862 to mark the approach to Boknafjord and automated in 1984. The keeper's house is now a small museum and the point is a bird-watching station.

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5. 

   5© Jarvin Jarle Vines · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Museum Stavanger

   The city's museum organisation, founded in 1877, running the natural history museum, the maritime museum, the Norwegian canning museum and the childhood museum under one ticket. The canning museum, in a former sardine factory, smokes fish on open days.

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   Utstein Abbey

   The best-preserved medieval monastery in Norway, on Klosterøy island north of Stavanger, founded as an Augustinian house in the thirteenth century on a royal estate. Church, cloister and refectory all stand, which is unique in the country after the Reformation.

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7. 

   7© Jarvin · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Riska Church

   A parish church of the Church of Norway at Riska in Sandnes municipality, built in the twentieth century to serve a growing population on the east side of Gandsfjord. The medieval church it replaced still stands nearby.

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8. 

   8© Mr. Ståle Johnsen (Guaca) · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Hinna Church

   A Church of Norway parish church in the Hinna district in the south of Stavanger municipality, built in the later twentieth century for the suburbs spreading along Gandsfjord.

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   Kampen Church

   A wooden parish church in the Kampen district of Stavanger, one of the older churches in the city, serving the workers' quarter that grew around the canning factories. It is a Church of Norway parish.

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10. 

    10© Jarvin · CC BY 3.0

    St. Petri Church

    A red brick long church of 1866 in the Storhaug district, built to Fritz von der Lippe's design and seating about 900. It shares a parish with the cathedral and is known to everyone simply as the Petrikirken.

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1. 

   1© Olaf Meister · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Gamle Stavanger

   The old quarter west of the harbour, of about 170 white-painted wooden houses from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries along cobbled lanes. It was slated for clearance in the 1950s and saved by a conservation campaign; it is now among the best-preserved wooden towns in northern Europe.

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   St. Johannes Church

   A white plastered brick church of 1909 in the Johannes quarter, built to Hans Jacob Sparre's design and seating some 700. It stands on rising ground east of the centre and serves the surrounding parish.

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3. 

   3© Rune Sattler · CC BY-SA 2.5

   Høle Church

   A wooden Church of Norway parish church at Høle, a village at the head of Høgsfjord in Sandnes municipality. It serves the farming settlements along that arm of the fjord.

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4. 

   4© Jarvin · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Frue Church

   A Church of Norway parish church in Stavanger, also called Hetland Church, built in the later nineteenth century as the city expanded south beyond the medieval parish.

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5. 

   5© Rune Sattler · CC BY-SA 2.5

   Strand Church

   A Church of Norway parish church in the village of Tau in Strand municipality, across the fjord from Stavanger and reached by the ferry or the Ryfylke tunnel.

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6. 

   6© Jarvin · CC BY 2.5

   Høyland Church

   A Church of Norway parish church at Høyland in Sandnes municipality, continuing a parish that goes back to the medieval stone church on the site.

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   Sørbø Church

   A medieval stone church at Sørbø on the island of Rennesøy, north of Stavanger, built in the twelfth century and among the oldest churches in the region. Rennesøy is now reached from the city by undersea tunnel.

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8. 

   8© Jarvin · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Old Riska Church

   The medieval stone church at Riska in Sandnes municipality, kept in use for occasional services after the new parish church was built. It stands above the east shore of Gandsfjord.

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9. 

   9© Jarvin · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Gand Church

   A Church of Norway parish church at Gand in Sandnes municipality, serving the town that grew at the head of Gandsfjord south of Stavanger.

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    Sola Chapel

    A medieval stone chapel at Solakrossen in Sola municipality, built in the twelfth century, ruined for centuries and restored in the twentieth. It is used now mainly for weddings and small services, and the airport is a few minutes away.

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