The conservation work at Kirkjubo Cathedral

This text taken from the information panel at the Cathedral.

After the Faroese episcopal residence had been abolished in 1557, the cathedral in the islands, colloquially referred to as Mururin, "the Wall", went out of use. it was left without a roof, without windows and doors. Exposed to wind and weather, frost and damp, the cathedral became dilapidated both on the outside and the inside.
It was obvious that action had to be taken in order to prevent the ongoing destruction of the most magnificent relic of the islands' past.  
In later years Foroya Fornminnissavn (National Museumof the Faroe Islands) has tried to determine the destructive forces. A project was presented to the Faroese Minister of Culture in January 1997. For one reason or another, the project was never realized. In September 2002 a commission, set up by the Minister of Culture in 2001, handed in a recommendation for a test setup of part of the project with some minor changes.
In May 2003 the commission  recommended that the minister carried out the rest of the scheme, which he did. Foroya Fornminnissavn has since then started work on the conservation project.

The basis of the conservation work is to preserve the ruin for its value as a comparatively well preserved and authentic relic of the past. In principle this will be done by cleaning, drying,
stabilizing and preserving the wall, and by taking measures to protect the wall against the damaging effect of the weather.                              

The first stage was the erection of a preliminary weather shield to prevent rain and wind from penetrating the brickwork. Since then the process under the shield has been observed carefully, e.g. different kind of measureing have stated that the weather shield has been working as planned.

The 28th November 2008 the Minister for Culture was handed a recommendation regarding the future preservation work from Foroya Fornminnissavn and the commission in common.

This is an overall solution covering all the monuments in Kirkjubour and a management plan for the area as well.

Regarding the preservation of the cathedral the recommendation recommends conservation of the brickwork - openings and the top of the walls will be jointed and sealed up hindering water to penetrate the brickwork.

Another part of the preservation work, which was initiated last summer, is a fundamental building-archaeological investigation to obtain information on basic constructional questions. The basis for these investigations is a digital scanning of the ruin from 2009, which informs us about the present condition of the ruin. At the same time the conservation work is carried out, the dismantling of the weather shield will begin. In the end the ruined cathedral will stand exposed  again!