Helgeseter Priory or Elgeseter Priory (''Elgeseter kloster'') was a medieval era house of

Augustinian Canons The Canons Regular of St. Augustine are Catholic priests who live in community under a rule ( and κανών, ''kanon'', in Greek) and are generally organised into religious orders, differing from both secular canons and other forms of religio ...

in what is now the neighborhood of Elgeseter in

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; ), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros, and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2022, it had a population of 212,660. Trondheim is the third most populous municipality in Norway, and is ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

History

The monastery was founded by Archbishop Eystein no later than 1183, and rapidly assumed political importance. It was situated across the river Nidelven from

Nidaros Cathedral Nidaros Cathedral () is a Church of Norway cathedral located in the city of Trondheim in Trøndelag county. It is built over the burial site of Olav II of Norway, King Olav II ( 995–1030, reigned 1015–1028), who became the patron saint of th ...

. The priory was connected to the cathedral by Elgeseter Bridge, making it possible for the canons to perform their duty in the cathedral

choir A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

. In May 1240, Duke

Skule Bårdsson Skule Bårdsson or Duke Skule (; ) (–24 May 1240) was a Norwegian nobleman and claimant to the royal throne against his son-in-law, King Haakon Haakonsson. Henrik Ibsen's play '' Kongs-Emnerne'' (1863) is about the dispute between Duke Skule an ...

was killed outside this monastery. He had been attacked by the

Birkebeiner The Birkebein Party or Birkebeinar (; (nynorsk) or (bokmål)) was the name for a rebellious party in Norway, formed in 1174 around the pretender to the Norwegian throne, Eystein Meyla. The name has its origins in propaganda from the establ ...

s in

Nidaros Nidaros, Niðarós or Niðaróss () was the medieval name of Trondheim when it was the capital of Norway's first Christian kings. It was named for its position at the mouth (Old Norse: ''óss'') of the River Nid (the present-day Nidelva). Althou ...

, and after wandering for a couple of days took refuge in Helgeseter. The Birkebeiners set fire to the monastery and forced Skule out again, whereupon they killed him together with his son Peter. The priory was suppressed during the

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

in 1537. The old

prior The term prior may refer to: * Prior (ecclesiastical), the head of a priory (monastery) * Prior convictions, the life history and previous convictions of a suspect or defendant in a criminal case * Prior probability, in Bayesian statistics * Prio ...

continued to live at the monastery until 1546, when the

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

Bishop the

Diocese of Nidaros Nidaros is a diocese in the Lutheran Church of Norway. It covers Trøndelag county in Central Norway and its cathedral city is Trondheim, which houses the well-known Nidaros Cathedral. Since 10 September 2017, the Bishop of Nidaros is Herborg ...

moved in. In 1564 the buildings were burned down. After 1606. the site was used as a quarry for construction on

Vår Frue Church Vår Frue Church ( / ) is a medieval parish church of the Church of Norway in Trondheim Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is located in the downtown Midtbyen, Trondheim, Midtbyen area of the city of Trondheim, just a few blocks north ...

and the Archbishop's Palace in Trondheim. There are now no visible ruins, but underground remains lie beneath the present streets Klostergata 47 and 60-62 and the roadway between them, a little south of the Nidelven.

Burials

Harald Hardrada Harald Sigurdsson (; – 25 September 1066), also known as Harald III of Norway and given the epithet ''Hardrada'' in the sagas, was List of Norwegian monarchs, King of Norway from 1046 to 1066. He unsuccessfully claimed the Monarchy of Denma ...

References

Other sources

* Lunde, Øivind (1977) ''Trondheims fortid i bygrunnen'' in ''Riksantikvarens skrifter'', nr. 2, pp. 145–148 and 215. (Trondheim : Addresseavisens forl.) History of Trondheim Christianity in medieval Norway Augustinian monasteries in Norway Buildings and structures in Trondheim Monasteries dissolved under the Norwegian Reformation {{Christian-monastery-stub