Saint Olav's chapel in Spain

The village Covarrubias on a beautiful autumn morning. A shepherd is crossing a stone bridge on his way out of town with his flock of sheep. On his way he passes a welcome sign in many languages, including Norwegian.

At the market place in front of the Arlanza hotel children are playing on their bikes while the adults sit relaxing with their coffee or tea. A peaceful idyll characterises the picturesque medieval village.

But inside the office of the town mayor Miguel Ortiz, with its view over the market place, there's plenty of activity. He's having a meeting with Covarrubias' jack of all trades Juan Jose Jorge Moneo, also known as 'Juancho', and Øyvind Fossan, 'El Presidente' in the Princess Kristina foundation. 

And it is the legendary princess the three happy men are holding a meeting about. Kristina is about to become the midpoint of the little village and a cultural link between Norway and Spain.

And now both the Kristina foundation and the mayor want to build a St Olav's chapel in a lovely valley just outside Covarrubias. They have even advertised an architect's competition between two high schools, one Norwegian, one Spanish, for who will design the chapel.

In fact both the mayor and the jack of all trades were in Norway last summer under the auspices of the Kristina foundation and visited Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim, as well as collecting inspiration for future Kristina celebrations from 'The Play about Holy Olav' at Stiklestad North of Trondheim.

Beautiful Kristina was the daughter of Håkon Håkonsson, one of Norway's mightiest kings, and in 1258, scarcely 24 years old, was married to a Spanish prince, far away from the shores of Norway. But not so far away all the same.

For in the late Middle–Ages Norway was a great sea–power, and our kings and chieftains travelled long distances with their retinues, by no means only to wage war.  All the same, the destiny and the life of young Kristina were quite out of the ordinary. It is strange that her story was forgotten for centuries, until the historian P A Munch revived it 100 years ago. Since then two plays have been written about her journey to Spain and her marriage with Don Felipe, the brother of the great king Alfonso X, known as El Sabio, the wise.

The story of Kristina's bridal journey is portrayed in Håkon Håkonsson's saga, written by Icelandic Sturla Tordsson. There it says that a Norwegian court delegation went to Spain in 1255, well equipped with gifts such as hunting hawks, fur skins and so on, and stayed there till the following year.

They should then have travelled home accompanied by Spanish noblemen, in order to ask King Håkon for Kristina's hand for one of Alfonso's brothers. Later accounts seem to suggest that the Spaniards came to Norway on their own initiative.

At any rate the Spanish envoys came to the King's seat at Tønsberg in 1256. They were led by King Alfonso's own notary, Sira Ferrant, who put forward the King's proposal. King Håkon consulted with the archbishop and the 'kingdom's wisest men'.

The king said yes to the Spanish envoys, but on one condition: Kristina should herself choose which of King Alfonso's brothers she preferred.

This was in itself as good as unheard of at this time – that a woman's will should decide whom she should marry, and even more so in the case of a royal marriage.

A large retinue sailed from Tønsberg in late summer 1257, in a newly built ship, with an individual cabin for the sea–sick Sira Ferrant. The retinue was led by Bishop Peder of Hamar, and the princess' court consisted of more than 100 people.

The journey went across the North Sea to England, over the channel to Normandy, then through France by horse. In Barcelona the colourful party was received by King Alfonso's father–in–law Jaime 1.

Right after the new year in 1258 they came to Valladolid, at that time the capital of Castille, and were well received by the Spanish king. Two days later Kristina could choose between his brothers, and the favoured one was the youngest, 27 year old Felipe. He was known as an enthusiastic rider, hunter and sports man. As a boy he had been selected as abbot for the church in the historic village Covarrubias – but had never been attracted to an ecclesiastical calling. 

But after just four years of life together with the three years older Don Felipe, Kristina dies, 28 years old and childless in Seville. Unhappy? That is what has been claimed. The pale and delicate Norwegian beauty died of melancholy because she never felt at home under foreign skies, is what has been said.

The marriage with the Spanish prince was unhappy – after all they had no children, others have claimed. But Don Felipe died himself, still childless after a new marriage many years later. Everything suggests that Kristina from Norway was both happy and glad during those few years of marriage with her prince in the sunshine of Andalusia, and that instead it was a serious illness that cost her her life.

Covarrubias was in itself a quite unusual bastion of feminism in the Middle Ages. The little town about 50 km South of Burgos was governed for several centuries from 978 AD by women, both religious and aristocratic. From being a humble fief el Infantado grew to become a kingdom of its own in the interior of Castille, a peaceful area governed  by princesses, with its own rights and a large amount of freedom for its inhabitants. In fact these privileges were only first lifted in the middle of the 1700s.

But it was here our princess was taken with a large funeral party from Seville, where she had died suddenly in 1262. Covarrubias would have been Don Felipe's abbey if he had not married and given up the possibility of an ecclesiastical career. Here can be found 30 of old Castille's nobility lying in their monumental tombs.

Princess Kristina has got one of her own, which was finally identified in the 1960s. Much about her death is unexplained, and it appears as if her sarcophagus may have been subject to grave–robbing. But it contains her skeleton, remains of clothes and buttons, and a parchment which was lying by her ear. It describes natural remedies against ear infection. Experts believe that the princess may have died from meningitis, which can give rise to considerable ear pain.

To the right of the tomb an old ships bell hangs. In today's Covarrubias young girls dreaming of marriage strike this bell hoping to have their greatest wish fulfilled.

At Covarrubias' 1000 year jubilee in 1978 a beautiful statue of Kristina, made by Brit Sørensen, was unveiled at the church where the princess lies at rest. A copy stands in front of the Palace cliff ('Slottsfjellet') in her home town Tønsberg. The plaque on the statue says:

"La Princesa Kristina vino a Espana en 1257 desde Tønsberg, Noruega y contrajo matrimonio con el Infante Felipe, abad de Covarrubias. La estatua es una donacion a la vila de Covarrubias con motivo del milenario de su infantado 1978 por la ciudad de Tønsberg y otros donantes.

Obra de Brit Sørensen"

The chronicles tell that the princess asked her husband to have a chapel built to the honour of the Norwegian St Olav, but her wish was never fulfilled. The Princess Kristina foundation took the initiative to realize this 800 year old dream, and wants to build the chapel in Covarrubias. The council has provided a site for the project. It is the foundation's wish that the St Olav's chapel, in addition to having a religious function, should be an architectonic attraction and a historical and living expression of Spanish–Norwegian cultural links. Recognized architects will supervise the competition and the conduct of the project.

Little Covarrubias is about to become one of those cultural oases that a Norwegian can't travel to Spain without visiting. If you want to know more about the place Covarrubias you can see the website www.ecovarrubias.com. See too www.virtualtourist.com and enter "Covarrubias" in the search window.

Cathrine Melbye Schultz gives an insight into the historical background of the European Middle Ages, first and foremost in Norway and Spain, in her engaging article on Princess Kristina (to be translated).

For the last ten years the Princess Kristina foundation in cooperation with the Norwegian Embassy in Madrid and the local authorities have held concerts and other cultural activities in Covarrubias at the festival Notas de Noruega.

With time these cultural events have been gradually growing into a small festival format including concerts, exhibitions and sale of Norwegian products at the plaza.

It is the foundation's aim to work towards a festival format that can provide a setting for Norwegian art and culture on a larger scale. The St Olav's chapel will in that case play its part as a new space for cultural activities.

The Princess Kristina foundation is a cultural foundation. The purpose is to promote cultural initiatives and activities in Spain that can contribute to strengthening the ties between Norway and Spain. The foundation was set up in 1992 by representatives of the Norwegian Union that for years has developed links between Norwegians in Spain and Covarrubias, Spanish–Norwegian business life in Spain, representatives for the Norwegian embassy in Madrid and others.

The Princess Kristina foundation has come to represent the most important milieu for the presentation of Norwegian culture in Spain and for Spanish–Norwegian cultural exchange. With an active board comprising Norwegian and Spanish members the foundation has organized a number of cultural activities with Norwegian artists in Covarrubias, in close cooperation with the town's authorities and the Norwegian embassy in Spain.

It can be safely said that Covarrubias has started to become quite a pilgrimage centre for Norwegians living in or visiting Spain, as well as attracting an increasing number of Spaniards to the cultural and related events happening under the auspices of the foundation. With roots in history and with great enthusiasm everyone involved has managed to build up a cultural centre of high quality, which can now be even further enriched by the existence of a St Olav's chapel and all the different activities that can take place there.

If you want to know more about the foundation or how you can become a member, you can contact the manager of the Kristina foundation Øyvind Fossan by e–mail: oyvindfossan(at)teleline.es (insert @)