Nidaros

Nidaros, Niðarós or Niðaróss (Old Norse pronunciation: [ˈniðɑˌroːsː]) was the medieval name of Trondheim when it was the capital of Norway's first Christian kings.

Although the capital was later moved to Oslo (around the year 1300), Nidaros remained the centre of Norway's spiritual life until the Protestant Reformation.

Archbishop Olav Engelbrektsson led Norway in its attempted resistance against the Danish Reformation, and was forced into exile by King Christian III in 1537.

The bishops of Oslo (established 1073), Bergen (c. 1060), Stavanger (1130), Hamar (1151), Orkney (1070), Skálholt (1056) and Hólar (1105) in Iceland, and Garđar in Greenland were made its suffragans.

Jon Birgerson was succeeded as archbishop by Eystein (Beatus Augustinus, 1158–88), former royal secretary and treasurer and an intelligent, strong-willed, pious man.

[6] King Håkon III Sverresson (1202), son and successor of Sverre, made peace with the church whose liberty was preserved by the support of the pope and his archbishops.

Norwegian Protestant ecclesiastical historian Anton Christian Bang asked what would have happened "if the Church, deprived of all liberty, had become the submissive slave of absolute royalty?

[7] To regulate ecclesiastical affairs (which had suffered during the struggles with Sverre), Innocent IV sent Cardinal William of Sabina as legate to Norway in 1247.

The feast of St. Olaf on 29 July was a day of reunion for "all the nations of the Northern seas, Norwegians, Swedes, Goths, Cimbrians, Danes and Slavs" [9] in the cathedral of Nidaros, where the saint's reliquary was near the altar.

The main, 640-kilometre (400 mi) route begins in the ruins of Oslo's Old City (Gamlebyen) and heads north along the lake Mjøsa, up Gudbrandsdalen, over Dovrefjell and down the Oppdal valley to the cathedral.