St. Olavsleden

[1] Today St. Olavsleden stretches 564 kilometres (350 mi) from the Bothnian sea in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west through two countries and eleven municipalities.

St. Olavsleden passes through the ancient cultural landscape, following as closely as possible the roads and paths that pilgrims of that time and other travelers wandered and rode.

The resistance grew, and Olaf was forced to leave the country in 1028 and make his way to Novgorod, where his sister-in-law Ingegerd lived, married to Tsar Yaroslav.

[4][5] According to the legend recorded in the 1680s,[6] at the beginning of July 1030 after a few years of exile, Olaf came ashore in the parish of Selånger in Sundsvall.

King Olaf supposedly erected a copper-clad cross in the harbor which should still have remained there forty years before the story was written down.

Hardware trading in the north–south direction is believed to have taken place in Selånger's shipping port (at an easily accessible land connection between the sea and river Ljungan), as early as the 6th century, resulting in a wealth revealed in finds made in the Högom chamber grave (Högoms gravfält) in Selånger parish.

[11][12] Nidaros and its Cathedral became one of the most important pilgrimage destinations of the Christian world in parity with Jerusalem, Rome and Santiago de Compostela.

In many towns and villages there are street names, connected to St. Olaf and to pilgrimage, including Pilgrim's road (Pilgrimsvägen).

The route has been recreated as follows: Selånger - Tuna - Stöde - Torp - Borgsjö - Jämtkrogen - Bräcke - Gällö - Revsund - Pilgrimstad - Brunflo - Östersund - Frösön - Alsen - Mattmar - Järpen - Undersåker - Åre - Medstugan - Skalstugan - Sul - Stiklestad – Stjørdal - Trondheim.