Stavanger, Norway - 1 of 5

Stavanger (Sandes)
We began our visit to Stavanger, the 12th century city in SW Norway and Norway’s 3rd largest city (and the administrative head of the Rogaland County in Norway) with 150,000 people (240,000 in the extended area) with a surprise docking in Sandes a town about 15 minutes away from Stavanger and then we took a bus to Stavanger Central.

Before we met our guide we found a large sculpture by the Iraqi-American artist Michael Rakowitz outside the Stavanger Cathedral. The sculpture (see photos) is a recreation of a guardian figure from an ancient Assyrian temple. The temple has been subject to looting and destruction since the 1850s, when British archaeologists first began removing parts of its artworks to send them to the West. Several waves of colonial plundering followed before ISIS destroyed the remaining structures in 2015.

The invisible enemy should not exist (Lamassu of Nineveh) (2018) represents a lamassu—a protective deity with the head of a human, the body of a bull, and the wings of a bird. Once found in the ancient city of Nineveh, The 3,000 year-old guardian figure is made from the packaging of empty tin cans that once contained Iraqi date syrup, recalling the original colors of the sculpture, while the choice of material serves as a commentary on the devastating effects that war and imperialism has had on the once legendary Iraqi date industry.

We met our guide Andrea and the 7 of us did a long walk around the city as we visited a city filled with art and museums. We began with the history of the city at the Alexander Kelland memorial – who in the 1850s was a very progressive author and businessman and became the mayor. We visited the “broken chain memorial”, representing the 1980 disaster where an oil platform capsized and over 100 men lost their lives.

We learned about Norway’s Independence in 1814 from Danish rule for a “short time” before becoming ruled by Sweden. It wasn’t until 1905 that Norway achieved a FULL independence when its union with Sweden dissolved.

We also learned about the evolution of the Stavanger Cathedral (see photos) from the Middle Age that with its original architecture is in continuous use since the 1300s. Built in 1125 after Sigurd Jorsalfarer named Stavanger a cathedral city, this is considered the date the town was founded and has just finished a major renovation for its 900th anniversary. There were many people there today to visit the fully renovated inside of the Church. So we only viewed the outside of the original Roman design Stavanger Cathedral. After a fire in 1272, they made an addition and on the outside you can see the newer section in a Gothic style. Interestingly, what came first, the city, or the Cathedral? Since there is no record of the city before the Cathedral, I’m guessing the City built up “because” of the Church being there.

Then we went to see the “Leading Gazelle” which was originally a statue by Marshall Fredericks in 1936 in Detroit and later in 1958 was dedicated to “Norwegian Emigrants" as a symbol of friendship between the United States and Norway and presented it to King Olav V. The work commemorates the men and women of Norwegian blood who have contributed to the building of America (see photos). See two videosもっと詳しく