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Hvalsey Church (Danish: Hvalsø Kirke; Old Norse: Hvalseyjarfjarðarkirkja) was a Catholic church in the abandoned Greenlandic Norse settlement of Hvalsey (modern-day Qaqortoq). The best preserved Norse ruins in Greenland , the church was also the location of the last written record of the Greenlandic Norse, a wedding in September 1408.
Hvalsey ("Whale Island"; Greenlandic Qaqortukulooq) is located near Qaqortoq, Greenland and is the site of Greenland's largest, best-preserved Norse ruins in the area known as the Eastern Settlement (Eystribyggð). In 2017, it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List and part of the Kujataa Greenland site.
Approximately 500 groups of ruins of Norse farms are found in the area, with 16 church ruins, including Brattahlíð, Dyrnæs, Garðar, Hvalsey and Herjolfsnes. [2] The Vatnahverfi district to the southeast of Einarsfjord had some of the best pastoral land in the colony, and boasted 10% of all the known farm sites in the Eastern Settlement.
Hvalsey Church is the best-preserved Grænlendingar building today. The simple, rectangular church was built around 1300 on a gentle slope not far from the fjord shore. As is usual with old churches, it is oriented east-west. The approximately 1.5 m thick walls are artfully stacked stone. Clay may also have been used as mortar.
Hvalsey Church, located in Hvalsey (modern-day Qaqortoq), Greenland, Kingdom of Denmark, is the oldest surviving church (no longer in use, in ruins) in the Americas. Originally built in the 14th century as a Catholic church, although archaeology suggests it was constructed on the site of a previous church.
The ruins of Hvalsey – the most prominent Norse ruins in Greenland – are located 19 kilometers (12 mi) northeast of Qaqortoq. General or even limited trade between the Norse and the Thule people was scarce.
Ruins of the Norse Hvalsey Church. Peder Olsen Walløe (1716 – 27 April 1793) was a Danish Arctic explorer most noted for his historic exploration of the former Norse settlements on Greenland. Biography
The last written record of the Norse Greenlanders documents a marriage in 1408 at Hvalsey Church, whose ruins are the best-preserved of the Norse buildings of that period. Hvalsey Church ruins. After 1408 few written records mention the settlers. Correspondence between the Pope and the Biskop Bertold af Garde dates from the same year. [22]