King Magnus, the Franciscans, and today’s Bergen Cathedral

King Magnus Lagabøte had a close connection to the Franciscan monastery in Vågsbunnen. The Franciscan friars’ ideal of care and poverty appealed strongly to him. The friary was located where we find today’s Bergen Cathedral School. The buildings are gone, except for the monastery church, Olav’s Church. It has been significantly rebuilt and expanded over the years, and has been the Cathedral of Bergen since the Reformation in 1537. King Magnus chose to break with the tradition that kings should be buried in the Christ Church, the then Cathedral of Bergen, which was elegantly secluded on Holmen. Instead, he chose to be laid to rest in the Franciscan monastery church. In 1277, the king gave the Franciscans a large amount of money. Perhaps the enlargement of the church commenced immediately afterwards, with a new, large choir, including the future burial site of the king. However, the king died already in 1280, and must therefore have been laid to rest in the existing church. The same is probably true for his widow, Queen Ingeborg, who died seven years later. The expansion was not completed until 1301, when the church was re-consecrated. The royal couple’s remains must then have been transferred to the new royal burial site. In turn, this was probably removed when the Franciscan church became cathedral after the Reformation.