Hemse Stave Church in VR
– an immersive experience in the World of the Vikings
Iron Age
500 BC – AD 1100
Viking Age
AD 800 – AD 1100
Middle Ages
AD 1050 – AD 1520
The church was likely built after 1095, making it almost a thousand years old. This was shown by a dendrochronological study, a method for dating wood using tree rings, conducted by researcher Alf Bråthen.
Parts of the stave church were reconstructed and initially displayed at the National Museum, but there was not enough space for the entire structure. In 1941, the reconstruction was moved to the new premises of the Swedish History Museum on Narvavägen, where it was exhibited for many years. Today, you can see parts of Hemse Stave Church in one of the museum’s permanent exhibitions, History of Sweden.
For the exhibition The Viking World, which opened in 2021, a reconstruction was created in the form of a VR experience where you can look around both outside and inside the church. The VR experience is based on the original parts preserved in the museum’s collections.
Objects from Hemse Stave Church
Hemse Stave Church
On view at Historiska museet in the exhibition Sveriges historia
Column capital
Pine column capital. The upper, four-sided section is decorated on two sides with three carved concentric rings. The capital was found together with other architectural elements from Hemse stave church, beneath the stone floor of the Romanesque stone church built in Hemse during the High Middle Ages. Hemse Church, Hemse parish, Gotland.
On view at Historiska museet in the exhibition Vikingarnas världFind this object in display 93, Vikingarnas värld Monter 93
About the project
The VR experience was developed in collaboration with Jonathan Westin and Gunnar Almevik at the University of Gothenburg.
