Christianity came to Norway 950 – 1000. The norse religion had many gods, and Christianity had just one God. Saints:     St. Halvard,                 St. Eystein,                 St. Sunniva and the best known,                 St. Olav. Saint Olav died in ”The battle of Stiklestad”, year 1030. The corpes was taken to Trondheim in Norway, where he was buried. Later he was dug up again, taken to be buried to a church. And it was discovered that his hair, beard and nails had grown since he died. He was decleard to be holy. Wonders happened. Relics were kept in the churches. A relic is f.ex. a chip from the cross of Jesus. Trondheim became a city where pilgrims came to worship St. Olav.

A cross from the first Christian times. Note: It also has the shape of Thor's hammer. (Thor was the Norse god who made thunder when his hammer hit the clouds.)

The Nidaros Cathedral The Nidaros Cathedral is a national treasure and a parish church to about 5000 people.  The construction of the Christ Church (the first step towards a cathedral) began in 1070 on the site of St. Olav’s grave.  The oldest existing parts of today can be dated back to around 1140.  The Cathedral was ravaged by fire several times, but reconstructed each time.  The church today is mostly in the Gothic style, but its oldest parts around the nave are in the Roman style. 1070: Olav the Gentle began the construction. 1153: Nidaros becomes the site of the Archbishop, the details of the construction become richer. 1248: The founding of the western wall is ordered. 1531: The Cathedral is destroyed by fire. 1689: The spire collapses during a storm.

Bakke convent
The first church at Bakklandet was named ”Bakke church”, but it wasn`t built until 1714. Before that there was only a convent, a home for nuns there. The nuns had three basic rules: poorness, celibacy and obedience.
This convent was named “Bakke convent”. Bakke means hill. It was built in 1150, and probably founded by the king or a member of the royal family. It owned “Lade farm” and many other big farms that earlier had belonged to the king.
Otherwise there isn`t very much to find out about it. Presumably it belonged to a Roman Catholic order called “The Benedictiners.
 

Bakklandet
The first building at Bakklandet  was the brickworks that was built around year 1100. And it was closed down in 1988. At the beginning it was the king’s property, but it was taken over by individual persons later. We don’t know when, but in 1650 there lived a person named Ingebrigt Teglbrenner there. (Teglbrenner can be translated to ”brick-burner” in English) He lived in the first house built at Bakklandet, except from the brickworks.

There were about 100 workers at the brickworks, changing in periods. Since making bricks could only be done at the summer at that time, it didn’t draw enough people from the centre to Bakklandet. In 1650-1655 there were four houses at Bakklandet. Something that clearly says that the brickworks  did not draw many people away from the town. It’s possible that there might have lived a watchman near the brickworks, but we don’t know if this is true.

There were no farms at Bakklandet, and as previously mentioned the brickworks did not draw many people to Bakklandet. But some of the land was cultivated. So why did people move  there? The answer was the city fire that struck Trondheim in 1681, it was about  that time Bakklandet became Bakklandet.