page_title: Nidaros Cathedral West Front
section_title: The rose window
hierarchical_section_title: Nidaros Cathedral West Front / The rose window
caption_attribution_description: English: Christ in triumph (Kristus i triumf) from the west wall of Nidarosdomen. Modelled by Kristofer Leirdal (1915- ) and chiseled by Steffen Krogstad, Josef Ankile, Øivind Nergård, Josef Skaufel, Gunnar Olsen and Rolf Johansen 1958-1961.
context_page_description: The Nidaros Cathedral West Front, which includes multiple sculptures, was the final portion of the Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, Norway that was restored. Nidaros Cathedral is the world's northernmost medieval cathedral and Norway's national sanctuary. The West Front is the cathedral's main facade and one of the most beautiful and ornate portions of the church. The restoration of the West Front took from 1905 to 1983 and was worked on by a large number of sculptors. In 1869, the Nidaros Cathedral Restoration Workshop was founded with the purpose of restoring the Cathedral, and celebrated a 150 years Anniversary in 2019.
  A picture of the West Front from 1661 shows extensive deterioration, with only the bottom sections left standing. Only five statues from the Middle Ages have survived. The restoration of the West Front took from 1905 to 1983 and was worked on by a large number of sculptors.
  The largest church bell in Norway hangs in the West Front's north tower. Installed in 1964, it weighs 2,400 kg, and people say that it can be heard in Melhus, all of 30 km away, when the wind is in the right direction. The church has three bells.
context_section_description: None of the Nidaros Cathedral's original stained glass windows were intact when the restoration work started in 1869. The concept followed was to reconstruct the church in the Gothic style, and as a result the new stained glass windows should also have standard medieval themes. In 1907 the architect Gabriel Kielland (1871–1960) won a competition for new paintings for Nidaros Cathedral's southern gable. In addition Kielland delivered proposals to all of the church windows, and received the commission to create the stained glass windows. The paintings are iconographic imagery which were produced in collaboration with Oluf Kolsrud (1885–1945), professor of church history. The themes are from the Bible stories and Saint's legends, the windows on the north side of the church have a blue background and shows predominantly scenes from the Old Testament, the windows on the south side of the church have a red background and shows a corresponding predominance of scenes of the New Testament, while the rose window motif that faces the sunset (west), symbolizes doomsday. The rose window's structural layout followed the design by cathedral architect Olaf Nordhagen, and the diameter is built up around an eightfold symmetry with the innermost parts proportioned such that the diameter is formed of 16 sheets.
  The window expresses how things move outward from Christ and converge back to him by doomsday. In the middle is a red gem, which symbolizes Christ. The rays outward represent yellow flames in a blue background. Angels are located at the end of each flame; those on the upper half are singing and playing while those on the lower half are six winged. In the outermost ring are the angels of the judgment. Between the angels of judgment are the symbols for the four Evangelists. In the upper left is the Matthew the Evangelist as an angel with a written scroll. In the upper right is John the Evangelist represented as an eagle. In the bottom right is Luke the Evangelist as an ox. In the bottom left is Mark the Evangelist as a lion. The painted glass in the window consists of over 10,000 pieces. The rose window was presented as a gift from the women of Norway for St. Olav's anniversary in 1930, it was completed the same year and is regarded as Kielland's masterpiece.
caption: The relief Kristus i triumf (Christ triumphant) on the gable of the west face.
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