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Church of Our Lady (Copenhagen)
Encyclopedia
The Church of Our Lady is the cathedral
Cathedral
A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...
of Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
and the National Cathedral of Denmark. It is situated on Vor Frue Plads and next to the main building of the University of Copenhagen
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...
.
The present day version of the church was designed by the architect Christian Frederik Hansen
Christian Frederik Hansen
Christian Frederik Hansen , known as C.F. Hansen, was the leading Danish architect between the late 18th century and the mid 19th century, and on account of his position at the Royal Danish Academy of Art the most powerful person in artistic circles for many years...
in the neoclassical
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
style and was completed in 1829.
History
Construction of the original Collegiate Church of St. Mary, began no later than 1187 under Bishop AbsalonAbsalon
Absalon was a Danish archbishop and statesman, who was the Bishop of Roskilde from 1158 to 1192 and Archbishop of Lund from 1178 until his death. He was the foremost politician and churchfather of Denmark in the second half of the 12th century, and was the closest advisor of King Valdemar I of...
located on the highest point near the new town of Havn, later Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
. Bishop Absalon (1128–1201) was Bishop of Roskilde, and spent the rest of his life securing Denmark from foreign attacks and building many churches, monasteries, and founding of Copenhagen as a Denmark's Baltic port city. He was named Archbishop of Lund in 1178 and accepted only under threat of excommunication. Building at St Mary's continued on and off until 1209 when it was consecrated by Absalon's successor, Bishop Peder Sunesen on Ascension Sunday in March, the traditional feast day of the cathedral. The church was built in Romanesque style with its half-rounded arches inside and out. The church belonged to Roskilde Cathedral, the seat of the Bishop of Zealand and the capital of Denmark at the time.
In 1314 a fire destroyed the limestone cathedral so completely that it was rebuilt in the popular new building material of the day, over-sized red brick. The style of building was Gothic, with its typical pointed arches. The rebuilding of the simple church with a long nave and choir continued until 1388. Due to a lack of money, the great tower was not built until the reign of Christian II. It was as high as the church was long, and from artwork of the day, out of proportion to the size of the church.
A school was established early on and in 1479 parts of the church school were chartered to become the University of Copenhagen. Professors were brought from Cologne, Germany. The university brought an international faculty that widened Denmark's exposure to the great ideas and philosophies of the day. The university challenged the growth of the Protestant movement, but was eventually closed. By 1537 the university reopened as a center for Lutheran studies.
The Protestant Reformation
Reformation in Denmark
The Reformation in Denmark–Norway and Holstein was the transition from Roman Catholicism to Lutheranism in the realms ruled by the Copenhagen-based House of Oldenburg in the first half of the sixteenth century...
was hard on the St Mary's. Citizens of Copenhagen had elected to follow Luther, but Catholic officials at St Mary's tried to maintain the church as a center of Catholic resistance to change in Copenhagen. By royal decree both Catholic priests and Lutheran preachers were commanded to use the church jointly which incensed the majority of Copenhagen's population. On 27 Dec 1530 hundreds of citizens stormed St Mary's and destroyed every statue and tore the choir stalls to pieces. The richly gilt 17 altars were stripped of anything of value and smashed. Vestments, and altar equipment were stripped of jewels and gold, reliquaries were broken open and the contents destroyed. Even the name "St Mary's" became "Vor Frue Kirke", Our Lady's Church in a desire to keep the historic reference to Mary without the use of the un-Lutheran "Saint" appellation. Just a year later Our Lady Church celebrated the acceptance of the Lutheran Order presided over by Johan Bugenhagen, an associate of Martin Luther
Martin Luther
Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...
. 1539 saw the installation of the first Lutheran superintendents
Superintendent (ecclesiastical)
Superintendent is the head of an administrative division of a Protestant church, largely historical but still in use in Germany.- Superintendents in Sweden :...
, later bishops, of Denmark. In 1568 the dean of Our Lady Church was charged with defining accepted practice for Lutheran church services in Denmark under the direction of the Bishop of Zealand, and since that time the dean and later bishop of Our Lady Church has retained that role in the Danish National Church.
Lightning strikes damaged the church in 1573 and 1585 collapsing the some of the vaulting, tower, and roof. The tower was eventually torn down and rebuilt by 1609. It had an extremely tall pyramidal central spire with four shorter spires at each corner.
The medieval cathedral along with about a third of the rest of the city burned down in a four day long conflagration in October 1728. Our Lady was completely destroyed. In addition, all the many chapels and eighty epitaphs commemorating some of Denmark's most prominent nobles and Our Lady's wealthy parishioners were destroyed. The church was reconstructed in red brick by 1738 with a simple long nave and rounded choir added at the end, essentially on the same plan as the medieval church. The interior was a combination of Gothic and the ornate Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
style of the time. Ranks of tall half-round windows let in natural light and the ribbed brick vaulting arched high over head from two long rows of squared pillars supporting the roof. A row of side chapels ringed the nave and choir giving the appearance of a five aisled church which impressed all who entered, including King Christian the VI who oversaw the building's progress with impatience. Friedrich Ehbisch carved a magnificent new altarpiece
Altarpiece
An altarpiece is a picture or relief representing a religious subject and suspended in a frame behind the altar of a church. The altarpiece is often made up of two or more separate panels created using a technique known as panel painting. It is then called a diptych, triptych or polyptych for two,...
and pulpit in the finest Baroque tradition. The best-preserved ancient gravestones from the floor of the old church were replaced in the floor although not in the same locations as before. The exterior was plain red brick with the exception of an ornate sandstone doorways beneath the spire.
After the fire of 1728 the new tower rose higher than the previous one tapering to a tall spire modeled after the spire of St. Martin in the Fields in London. The bells from St Nikolai Church were moved to the new spire in 1743 and a set of four new bells were cast and added to the tower. The largest bell "The King's Bell" weighed just over 6000 kg. In time the tower held 42 bells. It was popular at the time to pay for extra ringing after weddings and funerals, which was a source of complaint by university students who were trying to study. A smaller tower in the same style was added to the roof line above the choir.
In September 1807 the cathedral fell victim to the bombardment of Copenhagen by the British Navy under Admiral James Gambier in the Napoleonic Wars. The English demanded the surrender of the Danish Fleet and the city. The Danes refused, and with most of the army on the border of Schleswig-Holstein, the city was nearly defenseless. For three days the British fleet bombarded the city and the coastal forts. British gunners used the tower of Our Lady Church for range practice setting it ablaze. The church was burned to the ground along with nearby sections of Copenhagen. Copenhagen surrendered and the fleet was turned over to the British, a humiliating defeat for Denmark.
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
style. Due to a lack of resources they incorporated elements of the surviving walls. The old surviving vaulting was blown up to make way for a church built in the new style. A pillared portico and a flat interior ceiling and simple classical lines are very different from the medieval church. The cornerstone was laid in 1817 and the work completed by Whitsun Day 1829. Bertel Thorvaldsen
Bertel Thorvaldsen
Bertel Thorvaldsen was a Danish-Icelandic sculptor of international fame, who spent most of his life in Italy . Thorvaldsen was born in Copenhagen into a Danish/Icelandic family of humble means, and was accepted to the Royal Academy of Arts when he was eleven years old...
was commissioned to decorate the interior with statues of Christ and the apostles; Judas Iscariot replaced by St Paul. Other artists also contributed sculptures and paintings.
The tower, based on the older medieval tower, was a controversial afterthought. The Neo-Classical style did not include towers. But citizens demanded and got a tower modeled on the older medieval tower. The tower is 60 meters high and contains four bells. "Stormklokken" cast in 1828 by Soren Hornhaver is the heaviest bell in Denmark at 4 tons. The oldest bell in Denmark also hangs there cast in 1490 by Olug Kegge. It was transferred to Our Lady Church from Antvorskov Abbey Church (Klosterkirke). A third bell was cast in 1699 by Friderich Holtzmann. The fourth cast by Anker Heegaard in 1876.
Thorvaldsen carved and donated the modern font as a personal gift to the cathedral.
Our Lady Church was designated the National Cathedral of Denmark only in 1924. Its relatively recent cathedral status stems from the splitting of Zealand (Sjaelland) into two Lutheran dioceses in 1922.
Major renovation organized by Professor Vilhelm Wohlert
Vilhelm Wohlert
Vilhelm Wohlert was a Danish architect.Wohlert was educated at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts' School of Architecture, where one of his teachers was Kaare Klint. In 1958 he and his partner Jørgen Bo started work on the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, a project on which they would work for...
in 1977-79 removed various additions that had accrued in the interior of the church over the years. A new large central organ was completed in 1995, with a choir organ added in 2002. The crypt has been converted into a museum which contains models of the various iterations of the building.
Architecture
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The pediment is decorated with bronzes of Jesus Christ and the Apostles. The interior is likewise decorated with the twelve apostles (one in front of each of the piers of the central nave), the Risen Christ displaying the wounds in his body (in a niche above the altar) and in front of the altar the baptismal fount in the form of an angel holding a large scallop shell, all in Italian carrara marble. All of these sculptures were completed in Rome by the famous Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen
Bertel Thorvaldsen
Bertel Thorvaldsen was a Danish-Icelandic sculptor of international fame, who spent most of his life in Italy . Thorvaldsen was born in Copenhagen into a Danish/Icelandic family of humble means, and was accepted to the Royal Academy of Arts when he was eleven years old...
.
In the aisles, a bronze bust of Bertel Thorvaldsen, modelled by Herman Wilhelm Bissen
Herman Wilhelm Bissen
Herman Wilhelm Bissen was a Danish sculptor.Bissen first studied painting in Copenhagen, then became a pupil of the sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. In 1824, he travelled to Rome and met Christian Daniel Rauch in Berlin. Under the influence of Thorvaldsen, his style changed from romanticism to...
, is on display along with many portraits of bishops and deans.
Royal events in the church
- 1363 - Wedding of Margaret I of DenmarkMargaret I of DenmarkMargaret I was Queen of Denmark, Norway and Sweden and founder of the Kalmar Union, which united the Scandinavian countries for over a century. Although she acted as queen regnant, the laws of contemporary Danish succession denied her formal queenship. Her title in Denmark was derived from her...
and Håkon VI of Norway - October 28, 1449 - Coronation and marriage of King Christian I of DenmarkChristian I of DenmarkChristian I was a Danish monarch, king of Denmark , Norway and Sweden , under the Kalmar Union. In Sweden his short tenure as monarch was preceded by regents, Jöns Bengtsson Oxenstierna and Erik Axelsson Tott and succeeded by regent Kettil Karlsson Vasa...
and Queen Dorothea of BrandenburgDorothea of BrandenburgDorothea of Brandenburg was the consort of Christopher of Bavaria and Christian I of Denmark. She was queen of Denmark , Norway and Sweden two times each...
. - 1536? - Coronation of King Christian III of DenmarkChristian III of DenmarkChristian III reigned as king of Denmark and Norway. He was the eldest son of King Frederick I and Anna of Brandenburg.-Childhood:...
. - 1559 - Coronation of King Frederick II of DenmarkFrederick II of DenmarkFrederick II was King of Denmark and Norway and duke of Schleswig from 1559 until his death.-King of Denmark:Frederick II was the son of King Christian III of Denmark and Norway and Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg. Frederick II stands as the typical renaissance ruler of Denmark. Unlike his father, he...
. - August 17, 1596 - Coronation of King Christian IV of DenmarkChristian IV of DenmarkChristian IV was the king of Denmark-Norway from 1588 until his death. With a reign of more than 59 years, he is the longest-reigning monarch of Denmark, and he is frequently remembered as one of the most popular, ambitious and proactive Danish kings, having initiated many reforms and projects...
. - 1648 - Coronation of King Frederick III of DenmarkFrederick III of DenmarkFrederick III was king of Denmark and Norway from 1648 until his death. He instituted absolute monarchy in Denmark and Norway in 1660, confirmed by law in 1665 as the first in western historiography. He was born the second-eldest son of Christian IV of Denmark and Anne Catherine of Brandenburg...
. - May 14, 2004 - Wedding of Frederik, Crown Prince of DenmarkFrederik, Crown Prince of DenmarkFrederik, Crown Prince of Denmark, Count of Monpezat, is the heir apparent to the throne of Denmark. Frederik is the elder son of Queen Margrethe II and Henrik, the Prince Consort.-Name and christening:...
, and Mary Elizabeth Donaldson
Broadcasts
Danmarks RadioDanmarks Radio
DR – officially rendered into English as the Danish Broadcasting Corporation – is Denmark's national broadcasting corporation. Founded in 1925 as a public-service organization, it is today Denmark's oldest and largest electronic media enterprise...
broadcasts a morning act of worship
Service of worship
In the Protestant denominations of Christianity, a service of worship is a meeting whose primary purpose is the worship of God. The phrase is normally shortened to service. It is also commonly called a worship service...
from the cathedral daily except Sundays between 8.03 and 8.21 local time (8.07 and 8.25 on Saturdays) and makes a recording of the latest transmission available via the internet http://www.dr.dk/P2/Morgenandagten/.