St. Nicolai Church

The St. Nicholas Church ( Sct. Nicolai Kirke ) is Vejle's oldest church and was until 1907 the only parish church in the city. It belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark.

The red brick building in the historicist style dates from the 19th century, on the site, however, since the Middle Ages a church detectable. An archaeologically as touristy interesting curiosity is the bier in an oak coffin Iron Age bog body.

History

The general view of the earliest predecessor of today's temple was built in the first half of the 13th century. The first written mention of the church is related to the in March 1256 that came together under the chairmanship of the Archbishop of Lund, Jakob Erlandsen in Vejle Synod and is also the first mention of the city in a traditional document.

The medieval building had only two naves and a smaller tower. To 1518, the church was already Protestant Siert, the transept was added with Holy Cross and Trinity Chapel.

Her contemporary form was given only at the new building of 1855 /56, while the choir was offset by three meters, so it was after cultivation of the third aisle of the south again on the center axis of the church. 1887/88 the Great Bell Tower of brick was added. 1965/66, the building was completely renovated.

Saint Nicholas today

An overview of the structure

Today, the church of St. Nicholas as a three-aisled hall church in approximate east-west orientation with a transept and a bell tower over the main entrance dar.

The tower has a total height of 27.3 m and carries a weathercock of 1.3 m length. He holds a clock tower from 1889, also bells and a 48 -piece set of chimes which were added in the second half of the 1970s. Changing melodies are played several times a day over the annual cycle; Sunday sounds a half-hour concert.

The oldest surviving substance occurs in the northwest of the nave to light: at the bare outside wall can still be bricked arches of Gothic windows and the former wife make input in the north side. The many modifications since the establishment are clearly visible on the whole church by differences in the masonry.

Also evident are 23 along the northern outside the diamond pattern disposed circular voids in the brick wall that contained skulls of unknown origin, dated to about 1630th

The church foundations without resting directly on the ground. It was originally surrounded by a walled cemetery, whose graves had to give way to the road in 1839 and were moved to a new resting place at the Jernbanegade in a few hundred meters away.

The building itself several mayors and elders were buried with their wives over the centuries. The grave stones were removed in 1862 from the church floor and recessed into the wall of the apse. Still intact, however, is the family tomb of Honoratiors Kai de la Mare ( † 1703) in Holy Cross Choir in the north transept.

The organ has 31 stops from 1968 and is located above the entrance at the west end of the hall.

Sacred treasures

Since Vejle until the beginning of industrialization in Denmark was a poor city and the church had to suffer particularly in the 16th and 17th centuries under fire, plague, and the afflictions of war, the equipment in comparison is rather simple. The majority of the surviving pieces dating from the first half of the 19th century and comes from donations wealthier citizens of the area.

Notable exceptions are the stone baptismal font of Dutch origin from around 1625 with a base of the 12th century, next to the restored in their original condition Renaissance pulpit from 1576, but mainly from the impressive altar in 1791 by the hand of the carver Jens Hjernøes was completed. The middle piece of the three-wing art is a copy of a resurrection scene from the Bayeux Cathedral in Normandy.

Use

According to the custom of consecrating Christian religious buildings in the port cities of Saint Nicholas of Myra, who is regarded as the patron saint of sailors, was complied with in Vejle, by the church of the city received its present name in 1491. Is the traditional connection between faith and evidenced by a 1938 seafaring anonymously donated votive ship, a model of the sailing ship " Dorthea Marie".

Under the roof of the church continue the activities of the Protestant parish will take place, along with concerts and cultural events.