On Monday afternoon, extensive tagging was discovered on walls and doors at Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim. In addition, the visitor center next door was tagged.
On Tuesday morning, work began to remove the yellow spray paint.
– This is masonry that is 800-900 years old, so we have to do it as gently as possible.
That’s what the manager of the building hut at Nidaros Cathedral, Rune Langås, says.
This is what it looked like after the tagging at Nidaros Cathedral on Monday afternoon.
Photo: Trond Odin Myhre Johansen / NRK
Not sure everything will be completely gone
The paint on the windows and doors is already gone early Tuesday.
– We brought in external help to remove the tagging from the visitor centre, the doors and some windows. We could have gone a bit tougher there, says Langås.
– There are not so valuable surfaces, which meant that we could use slightly different methods there.
On the medieval stone, a micro sandblaster is used, where you can adjust the pressure and distance to when remove the paint without damaging the substrate.
Rune Langås is department director of the National Competence Center for Listed Stone Buildings. In addition, he works at Nidaros Cathedral’s restoration work.
Photo: Jøte Toftaker / NRK
– It may not be very complicated, but it requires knowledge to use this equipment, and not least it is time-consuming.
He hopes all traces of color will disappear, but it may be possible to see where the yellow paint has been.
– When you know where it happened, you can possibly see some color traces, he says.
– Gets a little angry
Jorunn Hjørdis Bakeng walked past the clean-up work at Nidaros Cathedral on Tuesday morning. She is clear about what she thinks about the tagging:
– I don’t think much of that. This is one of the finest things we have in our city, she says.
Jorunn Hjørdis Bakeng thinks it is stupid that someone has tagged Nidaros Cathedral.
Photo: Jøte Toftaker / NRK
Young people Ida Kristine Hårstad and Nell Iselin Støwer-Dahl agree with that.
– I actually get a bit angry, says Hårstad, who thinks it’s way over the line.
Langås is happy that so many people are getting involved in the matter.
– People are upset, which we are too, but I am very happy about this commitment among the public. It was discovered early on, so we feel that together with Trondheim’s population we are looking after our national shrine, he says.
Ida Kristine Hårstad (left) and Nell Iselin Støwer-Dahl (right).
Photo: Jøte Toftaker / NRK
Man in his 40s arrested
A man in his 40s has been arrested for the tagging. He is already known to the police.
– The Damages Agency is considered serious on the basis that Nidaros Cathedral has historical, national and religious value, says police attorney Tina Marielle Værnes to NRK.
The man was taken to the detention center and is now being cared for by the healthcare system.
Published 09/04/2024, at 10.57 Updated 09.04.2024, at 11.14