Most outstanding are high medieval altar decorations of painted wood: twenty altar frontals, various polychromed Madonnas and a vaulted altar canopy. The collection also includes several Romanesque baptismal fonts, late Gothic winged altarpieces, metal vessels, and liturgical vestments. Introductory chapters on the museums history and on Western Norways medieval church landscape are followed by a presentation of one hundred selected art works.

Justin Kroesen is professor of the Material Culture of Christianity and research curator of church art at the University Museum of Bergen. Stephan Kuhn MA works on a PhD thesis on high medieval altar decorations in Norway and elsewhere.