Stavanger Cathedral
– the City’s Heart

Around 1125, Stavanger Cathedral was begun, and the city grew around it. It is Norway’s
oldest cathedral still in continuous use, built in Anglo-Norman style and dedicated to St.
Svithun, the city’s patron saint.
The cathedral made Stavanger a bishop’s seat and gave the town its early importance.
Through fires, reconstructions, and centuries of change, the cathedral has remained the
spiritual and symbolic center of the city. Today it stands not only as a place of worship, but
as a monument linking medieval Stavanger to the modern city.