The mediaeval Gol stave church (built 1216) was due for demolition after the construction of a larger new church around 1880. It was saved from destruction by the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments, which bought the materials with the intention of re-erecting the church elsewhere. Financial problems were solved when King Oscar II decided to pay for its relocation and restoration as the central building of his private open-air museum near Oslo, where it was completed in 1885.
In 1907, the royal museum was merged with the Norsk Folke museum, which now manages the stave church, still nominally belonging to the reigning monarch. A modern replica has been built as a tourist attraction in a theme park in downtown Gol; the replica is far from the original site of the mediaeval church
