Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/118

Its history is easily made out from a comparison of local traditions with the style of the building- itself. Between the years 1016 and 1030 St. Olaf built a church on the spot where now stands ISt. Clement's church, the detached building on the north, shown in plan at A (Woodcut No. 544). He was buried a little to the south of his own church, where the high altar of the cathedral is now situated. Between the years 1036 and 1047, Magnus the Good raised a small wooden chapel over St. Olaf s grave ; and soon afterwards Harald Haard- raade built a stone church, dedicated to Our Lady, immediately to the westward of this, at n. This group of three churches stood in this state during the troubled period that en- sued. With the return of peace, in 1160, Archbishop Eysteen com- menced the great transej^t c c to the westward of the Lady Chapel, and probably completed it about the year 1183. At that time either he or his successor rebuilt the church of St. Clement as we now find it. During the next sixty or seventy years, the whole of the eastern part of the cathe- dral Avas rebuilt, the tomb-house or shrine being joined on to the apse of the Lady Church, as was explained in speaking of the origin of the French chevet (vol. i. p. 475). In 1248 Archbishop Sigurd com- menced the nave, but whether it was ever completed or not is by no means certain. In 1328 the church was damaged by fire, and it must have been after this accident that the internal range of columns in the circular part was rebuilt in the style of our earlier Edwards. Thus completed, the church was one of the largest in Scandinavia, being 350 ft. long internally; the choir 64, and the nave 84 ft. wide. But its great merit lies more in its details than in its dimensions. Nothing can exceed the richness with which the billet-moulding is used in the great transept. Its employment here is so vigorous and so artistic that it might almost be suspected that this was its native place, and that it was derived from some wooden architecture usual in this country before being translated into stone. The greatest glory of the place is the tomb-house at the east end. Externally this presents a bold style of architecture resembling the 544. Plan of Catliedral at Trondhjem. Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.