Østermarie Church

The Østermarie Kirke in place Østermarie on the Danish island of Bornholm is located in the parish municipality (Danish: Sogn ) Østermarie Sogn, about 5 km east of Østerlars and 8 km west of Svaneke. Bornholm Marie had two churches in the Middle Ages. To distinguish them, the Western Church Vestermarie Kirke and the eastern Østermariekirke was called. Both gave the surrounding villages their names: Vestermarie and Østermarie.

The new church

The Østermarie church was built in 1891, designed by the Danish architect Andreas Clemmensen in the Romanesque Revival-style in the form of a cruciform church. The simple masonry consists of polished blocks of dark - Paradise granite. It was restored in 1964 and endorsed by the Bornholm painter Paul Høm with a new color scheme.

The new church replaces the built in the 12th century St. Mary's Church, which today exists only as a ruin and is adjacent to the new church.

The old church

The name of St. Mary's Church was first mentioned in 1403 as " Virgin of the eastern church." Romanesque church consisted of nave, chancel, apse and a broad west tower.

The peculiarity of the structure of the ship was a heavy twin vault, which consisted entirely of stone and was supported by two pillars. ( Such a massive stone roofs in Scandinavia are very rare. Barrel vault, however, are known in the round ships of the round churches of Bornholm. ) The ruined church still shows vestiges of this construction. Studies of the structural condition of the four-storey bell-tower in 1880 showed that this hardly was no longer safe and a renovation possible.

1885 decision was the demolition of the old church and the building of the new church, as well as an extension of the church had become necessary because of the liturgical requirements.

At the edge of the cemetery was a separate massive bell tower, which was originally used in the churchyard as a gate tower. It was demolished in 1892.

The already initiated demolition of the church, however, was stopped at the direction of a special survey of Bornholm churches to preserve the medieval churches of Bornholm. The church ruins was placed then under the supervision of the Danish National Museum, a historical monument.