The New Saint Olav column in the city of Sarpsborg, Norway 2016 : Heritage cooperation and communication of the World Heritage, the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Palestine

Many cultural heritage sites and projects have been discussed during the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018, EYCH 2018. This report presents a cultural heritage cooperation project between two sister-cities of Europe, Sarpsborg in Norway and Bethlehem in Palestine, initiated as part of the millennium city anniversary of Sarpsborg 1016-2016. It is according to EYCH 2018 based on a shared cultural heritage, in this case the medieval Saint Olav column in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, a pilgrimage site and a World Heritage which now is being restored. The aim of this report is to investigate how cultural heritage as art and narrative can be reframed within social collective commemoration and in shared pilgrim and heritage tourism, regarding continuity and change. This study is dealing with forms and settings of collective memory, narrative and storytelling, and theoretical concepts of linear, points and areas spaces with nodes of interest in trail-based heritage tourism, discussed by Stephen W. Boyd 2017. The focus of this study is the new re-created column and painting of Saint Olav, inaugurated at Olav Hall in the Borgarsyssel county museum in Sarpsborg 2016. It is a reconstructed “gjenskapelse” by the conservation artist Terje Norsted. This new painting and its relation to the original medieval column painting of Saint Olav in Bethlehem are analyzed with iconographical methods based on the art history research of the original paintings. This report is also discussing the date of the original column painting 1150-1165 and its kneeling donatrix figure, which can be identified as the daughter of Norwegian king Sigurd I, Kristin Sigurdsdotter. The New Saint Olav column and the Olav Hall in Sarpsborg is now established as a new pilgrimage goal along the European Saint Olav pilgrim route to Oslo-Trondheim. In this way the sister-cities Sarpsborg and Bethlehem will continue this peace and friendship project based on their connections as pilgrimage and heritage tourist sites.Updated October 2019 with minor adjustments.