Nidaros Cathedral stands over the burial site of King Olav II, who was killed in 1030 at the Battle of Stiklestad and became Norway's patron saint. Work began around 1070 under his nephew, King Olav Kyrre, on the site of an earlier wooden church. The cathedral was substantially complete by 1300. Its architecture is Romanesque and Gothic. The oldest parts are the octagon and its ambulatory, and the choir shows English influence, apparently modeled on the Angel Choir of Lincoln Cathedral.
It was the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Nidaros from 1152 until the Reformation abolished that archdiocese in 1537. Fires damaged it in 1327 and 1531, and in 1708 it burned almost completely.
Major rebuilding began in 1869, led first by Heinrich Ernst Schirmer and nearly completed by Christian Christie. The article says it was officially completed in 2001. The cathedral seats about 1,850, and new Norwegian monarchs are consecrated here.
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