Alta – redeux

Our second day in Alta had us touring the “City of Northern Lights”. Our first stop was at the Alta Museum. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site. There are many forms of rock art in the area and the museum is built along side a huge field of the rocks. Unfortunately because of the time of year they are under about 3 feet of snow. However in the museum they have several examples of the rock art. The ones outside are huge, 15 to 20 feet of art. The oldest specimens are about 7,000 years old. The ones in Alta are about 3,000 years old. When we first arrived at the museum there were a group of pre-schoolers out for their daily hour plus of play time, weather not an issue. They were climbing on the snow banks and eating the snow. This morning the temperature was about 5 F.

The museum had some small pieces of the rock art to include one called Pippi which was a realistic figure of a girl. There was also an exhibition of Sami clothing and one about one of their national ski jumpers from the 1960s. In the basement was a theater that had a show of the aurora.

The city of Alta has a population of about 21,000 and is the 6th most populated place in Norway. The town center is tiny. They offered a shopping shuttle but we did not go.

Our second stop was the Northern Lights Cathedral. It is an unusual structure, sort of looks like a cinnamon roll. The original church for the town was destroyed during WWII. The first service after the war was held on December 25, 1945 and the 100 people who attended decided they would build a new church, and the donations began then. The cornerstone was laid in 2000 with construction started in 2011 and consecration in 2013. It is made of poured concrete with over 40,000 pieces of titanium for the outside panels covering the building. The flooring is Alta slate in the entry with oak floors in the actual church. Because this is such a small community the building is used by many religions and is also the town concert hall, teen center, meeting hall and gatherings place for many clubs. The statue of Christ is quite different. It is bronze weighing 2 tons, he is standing in a boat and is looking up to convey hope.

Again, the internet is not strong enough to add photos to this post. Hopefully we get somewhere in the near future and I will be able to send photos too.