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Church of the Cross was a small medieval parish church for the northern part of the Old Town of Oslo. The ruin was rediscovered in 1922 and is now a part of the Ruin Park containing the ruins of the church and the greater St. Hallvard's Cathedral.
There is no definite information about when the church was built. The church is not mentioned in the sources of the fighting in Oslo in 1240 between King Haakon IV and Duke Skule, suggesting that it is possibly younger. In 1989 it was found a stick with runic inscriptions, dated to the first half of the 1200s. The name Church of the Cross occurs in this inscriptions, and it indicates that it may be older than 1240. When the church was built, it was located far north in the city, and an urban development north of the church came in the second half of the 1200s and the 1300s.
Church of the Cross had input from the west, from the cemetery, an entrance from the west and an entrance directly to the chancel from the south. The remains of the original altar foundation is visible. Around the church are the remains of the cemetery wall.
References:The Jan Hus Memorial stands at one end of Old Town Square. The huge monument depicts victorious Hussite warriors and Protestants who were forced into exile 200 years after Hus, and a young mother who symbolises national rebirth. The monument was so large that the sculptor designed and built his own villa and studio where the work could be carried out. It was unveiled in 1915 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Jan Hus' martyrdom. The memorial was designed by Ladislav Šaloun and paid for solely by public donations.
Born in 1369, Hus became an influential religious thinker, philosopher, and reformer in Prague. He was a key predecessor to the Protestant movement of the sixteenth century. In his works he criticized religious moral decay of the Catholic Church. Accordingly, the Czech patriot Hus believed that mass should be given in the vernacular, or local language, rather than in Latin. He was inspired by the teachings of John Wycliffe.