Places
The sculpted west front of Nidaros Cathedral with its rose window, with people in front.
The west front. Photo: Holger Uwe Schmitt, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Place · Pilgrimage site · Cathedral

Nidaros Cathedral

The northernmost medieval cathedral in the world, built over the grave of St Olav, and still a place of Lutheran pilgrimage.

Location
Trondheim, Norway
Building
Cathedral (diocesan see)
Tradition
Lutheran (Church of Norway)
Religious use
In use as a cathedral of the Church of Norway, with daily services.
Official website
Nidaros Cathedral

Map Building location: Apple Maps · Google Maps — the building, not a confirmed visitor entrance.

Built over the burial place of King Olav II, who brought Christianity to Norway and became its patron saint, Nidaros is a popular place of Evangelical-Lutheran pilgrimage, with several thousand pilgrims a year. New Norwegian monarchs are consecrated there.

In the Atlas

  • Lutheranism — The Church of Norway is Evangelical-Lutheran.

Each paragraph says whether it is documented history, a tradition handed down, or disputed.

  • Documented

    It was built from 1070 to about 1300 to mark the grave of Olav II, who was killed in battle in 1030. It became the cathedral of the Catholic Archdiocese of Nidaros in 1152.

  • Documented

    In 1537, at the Reformation, it passed to the new Lutheran state Church of Norway. A major reconstruction ran from 1869 to 2001.

Reference draft. The statements were checked against the general reference sources below, read in a build session (Wikipedia at a recorded revision, and Wikidata). They have not yet been checked against scholarly or primary sources.

  • Reference work · Read in a build session

    Nidaros Cathedral — Wikipedia (English)

    Read on 28 Oct 2026 at revision 1354367612, fetched by the research workflow (research/fetched/places/nidaros-cathedral/wikipedia.txt). A general reference work, not a scholarly source; the statements here were checked against it.

  • Reference work · Read in a build session

    Wikidata item Q215023 (Nidaros Cathedral) — Wikidata

    Read on 28 Oct 2026: instance of, religion, diocese, coordinates and official website.