At the edge of the world lies the last trace of Viking Christianity. Urnes Stave Church (c. 1130 AD) stands tall in Sognefjord in the west of Norway, yet it represents as much of an end as it does a new beginning. The church at Urnes is one of the last surviving examples of early Christian Scandinavia architecture, a rather lonely survivor which once had over 1300 siblings. Inspired primarily by the shipbuilding designs and pre-Christian mythology of the Viking culture, the northern architects of Urnes incorporated elements of Celtic and early Romanesque art. Interestingly, the method by which the Norsemen viewed these exterior artistic styles was due to those very same Viking ships.