Viborg Cathedral

The Church of Our Lady of Viborg (Danish: Vor Frue Kirke or Frue Kirke fʀu ː ə kiʀgə ) is the cathedral church of the Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of Viborg.

History and Architecture

Since the city was Viborg collection point in the country and one of the most important Things settlements around the peninsula in northern Jutland, a bishopric was established here in 1065 already. About the first church is not known, as no remains were found. It assumes, however, that she followed the usual Danish scheme of church architecture.

1125- 1200 was the first time a stone cathedral of granite ashlar with ship, lower choir, transept and twin tower. Until the introduction of the Reformation in 1188 the grave of the sainted provost Kjeld was in Viborg Cathedral as a place of pilgrimage. One of the important bishops of Viborg was Gunnar. He was trained in Paris at the Cistercian monks and wrote the Law of Jutland, which came into force in 1241. He was buried in 1251 in Kjeld Chapel.

Severity fires, especially in the years 1501, 1576 and 1726, put the powerful construction to again and again. For the restoration of the church in 1501 of red brick was used, as in many places in Northern Europe. The Reformation was able to quickly take in Viborg foot, held in 1525, the Danish Reformer Hans Tausen the Easter sermon. Friis, the last Catholic bishop of Viborg did not respond to the demands of the Protestants, which resulted in Viborg for a time the center of the Reformation in Denmark. Bishop Friis was imprisoned in 1536, like many other bishops this time, but in 1540 when he fired again and Eid accepted Protestantism. He was provided land on which he lived until his death. Despite the Reformation ideas were part of the Catholic cult, like the sermons for Erik Klipping until 1630 maintained. Relics such as that of St. Kjeld and St. Willehad were spent from their chapels in the choir and kept there.

The fire of 1576 was only reduced to a shell and destroyed large parts of the city. After the final destruction in 1726, the Romanesque building was shaped baroque to 1770.

When you are in the middle of the 19th century in Denmark more and more went over to historicist designs and new religious buildings sprung up everywhere, was also the Viborg Cathedral a general investigation subjected (1859 ). As you held the masonry for disrepair and was not satisfied with the non-uniform appearance of the church, they decided to demolition and new construction.

In 1863 the old church was torn down. The new building was completed in 1876 and inspired by the cathedral in Lund. They tried to get close with a style as pure as possible Romanesque building the original face of the Church. Critics, however, that the plant was built to textbook-like. The cathedral now appears clearly as a neo-Romanesque work of the 19th century. Extensive restoration took place in 1954-56 and 1996-97.

In the two towers hang five bells, medieval bells were destroyed during the fire in 1726. Three of today's bells, including the largest, were cast in 1730 by Caspar Kønig, a further 1837 by Meilstrup the Elder.

Interior and equipment

Due to the numerous disasters, conversions and ultimately the construction of the Cathedral of Viborg for a bishop's church is extremely poor in treasures. The interior comes almost entirely from the time after 1876.

Valuable piece of equipment is a Seven- 1494 dated chandelier from Lübeck.

The 1870 created from Bremen sandstone pulpit dates from C. Rose Falk and Hermann Wilhelm Bissen.

Today's frescoes that cover older decorative paintings were created 1901-06 and 1911-13 by Joakim Skovgaard. The picture program is inspired by the Apocalypse of John and Roman models and by the seal of Grundtvig.

Individual pieces of equipment such as the baptismal font were taken from other churches.

The altar is an imitation of the golden altar of the village church important to Sahl (until 2007 commune Vinderup ), created by CC Peters.

The cathedral also the Danish king Erik clipping is buried.

The crypt is the oldest part of the church and has three choirs.

West portal

Floor plan about 1877

Interior about 1877

Picture of the outside about 1877

Dom and ' Old Town Hall '

Today's View from the southeast