A Sunday stroll is always a good thing. Somewhere green and beautiful or somewhere of historical interest and a picnic, and that’s your day complete. My last weekend was a stroll somewhere of a historical interest.

I always had a fascination for neolithic sites, standing atones, churches etc. I thought this would be an ideal space to share my thoughts with those that have similar interests in sites and stones.

Living in a beautiful place like Wales, I had the opportunity to visit some ancient and not so ancient places. There are a number of fascinating churches all over the country.

Last weekend I discovered my favourite church. It would be the white painted wooden structure of the Norwegian Church in Cardiff that dates to the 19 the century. It is modern indeed, but the building has some lovely historical features and a unique location. The church is located by the waterside in Cardiff Bay and is a neighbour of the Welsh Assembly. It was the oldest surviving church in Britain to be founded by the Norwegian Seamen’s Mission and was the centre of Scandinavian religion, culture and tradition.

To give a little history: The port of Cardiff was one of the first to have a Norwegian Sailors church established to provide religious and social care to thousands of Norwegian sailors that were employed in the norwegian merchant fleet. The church was built in 1868 and consecrated in the same year. However, as the export of coal from Cardiff docks declined, the Norwegian Ships turned elsewhere for trade and the Norwegian Seaman’s Mission decided to withdraw their mission from the Church in the mid 1960’s. Without maintenance the building fell into dis-repair and was vandalised. To avoid total destruction when the development of Atlantic Wharf was being undertaken the Church was carefully dismantled in 1987 by The Norwegian Church Preservation Trust. Parts of the interior of the church were rescued and stored.

It was also interesting to discover that the Church served between 7,500 and 73,000 seamen per annum and became world famous as a meeting place for Scandinavian sailors.

In short, it was a home from home for sailors where they could read newspapers and magazines from home and relax and chat with friends.

Today, despite its corrugated exterior, the Church is calm and peaceful inside, with walls covered in paintings and plants and a sailing ship model suspended from the ceiling hung above the chancel. Now, the county council intends to continue to retain and enhance the cultural, arts programmes and the links between Wales and Norway of this important visitor’s attraction on the Cardiff Bay Waterfront for future generations.