Ribe Cathedral
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The Ribe Cathedral (also: Dom zu Ripen ), Danish Ribe Domkirke , also called Vor Frue Kirke (German Frauenkirche / Marienkirche), is an Evangelical Lutheran episcopal church in Denmark . It is the only five-aisled church building and the oldest cathedral church in the country. Ribe is also Denmark's oldest city.
history
After the first church in Haithabu ( Duchy of Schleswig ), Ribe is the oldest church in Northern Europe. The apostle Ansgar founded the first church here around 860 . The diocese of Ribe was founded in 948. Between 1110 and 1134, Bishop Thure "was the first to assemble the Ripemsian church from carved stone". In 1175 Wahl began to build today's crossing with choir and transept at Bishop Thure's church, when a fire destroyed this old church, monastery and town in 1176. The next town fire in 1258 did not damage the church, but on Christmas morning 1283 a central west tower collapsed while a large crowd was gathered in the church for mass.
Under King Christian III. the Reformation was introduced in 1536/37 . The diocese continued to encompass the entire west of Jutland and the north-western tip of the Duchy of Schleswig to Tondern . The episcopal possessions were secularized. When North Schleswig became Danish again in 1920, the Ribe diocese was reduced in size in favor of the newly created Hadersleben diocese , the main part of which had previously belonged to the Schleswig diocese .
Building
Ansgar's original church was a wooden structure and probably had several subsequent wooden buildings.
The first stone building was built in the now rich and prosperous city after the fire in the wooden church in 1176, mentioned in the Cronica ecclesiae Ripensis , until 1250 as a late Romanesque , three-aisled basilica with transept and west towers based on Rhenish models; it is 63 meters long and 36 meters wide. The main building material used was tuff , which was brought by ship from the quarries near Cologne and the Eifel and which can also be found in many rural churches in the diocese. Local granite or fine-grain Weser sandstone were only used for the base, fine architectural parts and sculptures .
The best stone carving and the most beautiful exterior part of the cathedral is the south portal of the transept, the so-called cat's head door , with the granite relief of the Descent from the Cross (approx. 1150–75) and columnar lions. The triangular gable above (1st half of the 13th century) shows a sandstone relief of the Heavenly Jerusalem and the royal donors of the cathedral. The bronze door is decorated with a door puller in the shape of a lion's head (around 1225).
During the construction, only the side aisles and the crossing over which the boldest component was built were initially vaulted : a mighty tuff dome . The central nave and transept were flat-roofed until the construction plan was changed at the beginning of the 13th century under the influence of the new Gothic architectural forms. Between 1225 and 1250 these components were also vaulted, with ribbed vaults over figural consoles . The central nave was given large triangular cliff windows .
In 1283 the northern tower collapsed. In its place a much higher brick tower, 52 meters high, so-called. Was Bürgerturm (Borgertårnet), the landmark of the city. As the name suggests, it is not a church tower, but a city tower, as they are known from Ghent and Bruges and other medieval cities in the Netherlands. The tower was completed around 1333 and the citizens had the large storm bell hung there, which was rung when there was a storm surge, fire or war. The tower has had a flat roof since the top collapsed in 1534 and today has a viewing platform. The Romanesque four-sided covered southern Marienturm (Mariatårnet) is more modest in size, but architecturally rich . The third spire is the roof turret over the east choir. Despite the relatively low tower height, the church building in the flat landscape and surrounded by the completely preserved old town characterizes the cityscape.
The chapel extensions, which were built on the side aisles in the 14th and 15th centuries, were able to be assembled into two outer aisles at the end of the Middle Ages. This gave the cathedral its current five-aisle structure.
With the introduction of the Reformation in 1536, the cathedral became a civic church. New furnishings and magnificent grave monuments were added in the Renaissance and Baroque periods , while the building slowly fell into disrepair. The decline accelerated after the Swedish Wars in the middle of the 17th century, after which the city and the surrounding area became very impoverished. In the case of makeshift repairs from 1738 to 1740, from 1791 to 1792 and from 1840 to 1845, building material was obtained by demolishing “superfluous” components.
The restoration from 1882–1904 under the architect HC Amberg saved the decaying building. The tuff stone facade was restored to its original shape and the southern Marienturm, which was demolished in 1791, was reconstructed based on Rhenish models. Inside, Amberg had a stone ciborie altar built, which from 1982 to 1987 had to give way to a new monumental choir design with mosaics, wall and glass painting by the painter Carl-Henning Pedersen .
Furnishing
The interior of the church appears rather modern and cool despite the preserved older building structure. However, the inventory includes many old, valuable pieces, including the pulpit from 1597, the baroque organ front and the bronze baptismal font from 1375 (including reliefs of the Trinity , the Coronation of Mary and the donor's coat of arms).
Also noteworthy is the (empty) sandstone sarcophagus of King Christoffers I (1259, Rhenish import) and the associated grave slab, the oldest royal grave slab in Northern Europe. It is made of Belgian granite , a black limestone, and originally had brass cladding and alabaster inlays. Until 1987 it was above the king's tomb (sarcophagus) in front of the high altar. The grave slab of the last Catholic bishop of Ribe Iver Munk is attributed to the Odensean sculptor Claus Berg .
Apse with frescoes, glass windows and mosaics by Carl-Henning Pedersen .
Pulpit from 1597 (Jens Asmussen, Odense).
Late Gothic wall painting Maria with the child on a pillar in the nave.
Cat head door
The eponymous cat's head
St. Jürgen with the Dragon (around 1475)
Baptismal font
The organ was built in 1973 by the organ builders Th. Frobenius & Sønner , in an existing organ case from the 17th century. The slider chest instrument has 50 stops on four manual works and a pedal . The playing and stop actions are mechanical
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- Pair : I / II, III / II, IV / II, IV / III, I / P, II / P, III / P, IV / P
See also
- List of lists of cathedrals
- Rued Langgaard (cathedral organist 1940–1952)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Claus Grymer: Danmarks ældste domkirke kristendom.dk, July 25, 2007, accessed on February 10, 2015.
- ↑ Information on the organ ( Memento from May 29, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) (Danish)
Web links
- Ribe Domkirke Official website of the cathedral parish (Danish)
- Ribe Domkirke online portal Danmarks Kirker , National Museum (dan.)
- Carl-Henning Pedersen artist portrait on KunstOnline.dk (Danish)
Coordinates: 55 ° 19 ′ 41.1 ″ N , 8 ° 45 ′ 39.8 ″ E