In 1180 there was great activity in Borgund: they were going have a new church. The trees had been felled and the great logs hauled to the site. The old wooden church had to be replaced because the timbers were rotting, especially the roof-bearing posts where they were set in the ground. In the new church the timber framework would not be in contact with the damp earth: it would be raised up on stone foundations, a great improvement that would lengthen the life of the building. Skilled and experienced craftsmen arrived and set to work trimming the logs and planks and timbers-perhaps as many as 2,000 pieces in all