Nidaros Cathedral is an architectural masterpiece located in Trondheim, Norway. The Cathedral was built more than 1000 years ago and it reflects the mixture of Romanesque and Gothic styles. Nowadays it’s still one of the most important place of worship in Norway. The Cathedral has recently undergone a restoration to completely replace the interior lighting.
Nidaros Cathedral is not just a place of worship, but a place of national celebrations and an auditorium for shows. The global lighting project has been led by Erik Selmer, norwegian lighting designer and civil engineer and it has been awarded in November 2021 by the “Norsk Lyspris », honorary award for lighting design and lighting products in Norway. Since 2017, Selmer worked with the project team with the purpose of replacing the antique illumination. The former chandeliers in the Cathedral have been replaced by 1600 new light points: among these, most are not visible to the visitors. This reinforces the intrinsic magic of the Cathedral where now all the constructive and artistic elements benefit from their own light point.
More than 700 customized units of Linea Luce and Linea Luce with RGBW were used for linear lighting: these solutions present CRI>85, 3000K temperature and a light beam that widens from 7° to 59. These solutions have been utilized in columns and niches to accentuate the details. The narrow beam solutions highlight each of the reliefs in the triangular surfaces of the walls between the arches. The roof is illuminated with points of light starting from the three-mullioned windows. A particular lighting system was also installed on the floor with a system of variable direction, intensity and focus. The wall of the choir and the organ are equipped with a particular lighting that uses a customized version of the Yori projectors (Ø43mm and Ø75mm), each with its own function: some, with a narrower beam, focus on the details, while others with a wider beam give light to the majestic atmosphere. Finally, six points of light fully illuminate the Wagnerian organ. The different powers (9, 17, 28W), the LEDs with a temperature of 3000K and CRI> 98 guarantee excellent quality light. The lighting system is managed via DMX to ensure flexibility and ease in controlling the light.
The internal lighting Cathedral is now perfectly calibrated for the various spaces of the sacred place and therefore it allows to highlight the extraordinary art and architecture of the Cathedral and to adapt to the liturgical moment.