Found another stavkirke

 

I have visited almost all stave churches (stavkirke) in Norway during frequent visits in the 90’s because I’m fascinated by their architecture. There are a few replicas here in the US and a year ago Joan and I visited the one on Washington Island just north of the Door Peninsula. You can click HERE to see my post from last year about this beautiful stavkirke.

Just the night before Thanksgiving we found out that another chapel in this architectural style is located not far from Bailey Harbor. There was no question that we had to find it.

Boynton Chapel is a small wooden chapel built in a late 12th-century Norwegian stave church (stavkirke) style. Handcrafted by Winifred and Donald Boynton between 1939 and 1947 on the grounds of their summer residence, the chapel is modeled after the Garmo stave church at Maihaugen in Lillehammer, Norway. A popular site for weddings and a favorite stop among Door County tourists, the chapel contains 41 hand-painted frescoes and numerous exceptionally fine carved-wood furnishings. (source: website Lawrence University, Appleton WI)

The chapel is at Björklunden, a 425-acre estate on the Lake Michigan shore that belongs to Lawrence University, Appleton. It is in a very picturesque setting and with all the snow around we made of course quite a few clicks with our cameras. Boynton Chapel is closed in the winter for visitors, so we were not able to see the interior, but this didn’t spoil our experience with this wonderful piece of architecture.

Stavkirke - but not in Norway

 

The third day up on the Door Peninsula was a gray one, and I mean a real gray one with no sun at all. That didn’t stop us to take an early ferry to Washington Island in Lake Michigan and explore this charming area. In this part of the country live many people with a Scandinavian heritage and therefor it was no surprise for us to find a Stavkirke (stave church) on the island. Almost all original stave churches are found in Norway and this one is a replica of one in Borgund, Norway. I have seen many of the Norwegian Stavkirkes during my frequent travels to Norway and the architecture is always awe-inspiring. The church belongs to the Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church on Washington Island and their present stone church is just across the road.

With no quality light present and the high contrast between the snow and the dark parts of the church I decided to bracket five different exposures and merge the images in NIK HDR Efex Pro. I know, it doesn’t substitute good light but the result is better than any of the single shots under these circumstances.

The two photos of the interior were made with an off-camera flash light that was directed into the ceiling. Joan assisted me with the flash light so I had both hands to hold the camera steady at 1/15 s. After a couple test shots I liked the results and didn’t even bother to use the HDR method.