St. Ansgar's Cathedral

The St. Ansgar (Danish: Sankt Ansgar Kirke - Katolsk Domkirke ) cathedral in the Danish capital Copenhagen is the bishop's church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Copenhagen, which covers the whole of Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Greenland.

At the site of the present church since 1764 already was a small Catholic chapel, which was funded by the Empress Maria Theresa. The present church was designed by the German -born architect Gustav Friedrich Hetsch. He was at that time one of the leading architects in Denmark. The foundation stone was laid in 1840, the consecration took place on November 1, 1842 The original patron saint was St. Salvator, " Saviour ". ; reminded the Latin inscription above the portal Christ redemptori sacrum - " consecrated to Christ the Savior." Later renamed after Ansgar from Bremen, the Apostle of the North took place. As a building material for the neoclassical church was red brick. It was financed mainly from the legacy of the Catholic inhabitant Christian Peter Bianco.

The church was indeed not intended from the beginning for Catholic cathedral and only a foreigner, but played a special role for the Danish Catholics. Freedom of religion was not introduced until 1849 in Denmark. 1868 by Pope Pius IX. Denmark Apostolic Prefecture set up, which was upgraded in 1892 with the Apostolic Vicariate. This was in 1953 raised to the bishopric, which is why Ansgar church was raised only in order to fully fledged cathedral, although already for almost 100 years had this feature. The last renovation took place from 1988 to 1992 under Vilhelm Wohlert.

The church is about 31 meters long, 13 meters wide and 300 seats. The original wooden benches with the Habsburg coat of arms are still in use.

The cathedral is an extensive collection of paintings and sculptures, but not all are in the church, but spread to other Catholic churches in the country.

The first organ was from Marcussen from Aabenraa. Today, a Starup organ in the cathedral Ansgar does its work, which dates from the Sion Church in the district of Copenhagen Østerbro and was installed in 1995.

Originally clear glass windows were installed, but these were replaced at the instigation of Bishop John of Euchs 1885-94 by bright stained-glass mosaics, which show some of the Saints.

The cathedral houses the skull relic of Pope Lucius I. (St. Lucius ), which was previously kept in the Cathedral of Roskilde. Lucius was beheaded in the year 254 in Rome.

The altarpiece was created by Leopold Kupelwieser, professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. It was a gift from Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria.

1864/65 the apse of Professor Joseph Settegast from Dusseldorf was designed by Hetschs plans. The subject of the painting is the Trinity, which is flanked by Danish and other Nordic saints.

The cathedra is located since 1995 in the middle of the choir, a new altar is written by Professor Wohlert.

The bell tower was built in 1943 by Gunnar Glahn and now houses three bells. The largest bell with the strike note F is called Saviour bell. The medium sized bell is called St. Ansgar and beats the sound A. Little Marie bell strikes the tone b.