St. Ansgar Cathedral (Copenhagen)
The St. Ansgar Cathedral (Danish Sankt Ansgars Kirke - Katolsk Domkirke ) in the Danish capital Copenhagen is the episcopal church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Copenhagen , which includes all of Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Greenland .
A small Catholic chapel has stood on the site of today's church since 1764, financed by Empress Maria Theresa . Today's church was designed by the German-born architect Gustav Friedrich Hetsch . At that time he was one of Denmark's leading architects. The foundation stone was laid in 1840, the consecration took place on November 1st, 1842. The original patronage was St. Salvator , "Savior"; this is reminiscent of the Latin inscription above the portal Christo redemptori sacrum - “Christ consecrated to the Redeemer”. Later it was renamed Ansgar von Bremen , the apostle of the north. Red brick was used as building material for the neoclassical church. Funding came mainly from the legacy of the Catholic resident Christian Peter Bianco.
The church was not a cathedral from the beginning and was only intended for Catholic foreigners, but it played a special role for Danish Catholics. Religious freedom was only introduced in Denmark in 1849. In 1868 Pope Pius IX. established the Apostolic Prefecture of Denmark, which was upgraded to the Apostolic Vicariate in 1892 . This was only raised to a diocese in 1953, which is why the Ansgar Church was only then raised to a full cathedral, although it had had this function for almost 100 years. The last renovation took place from 1988 to 1992 under Vilhelm Wohlert .
The church is about 31 meters long, 13 meters wide and offers 300 seats. The original wooden benches with the Habsburg coat of arms are still in use.
The cathedral owns an extensive collection of paintings and sculptures, not all of which are in the church, but are also distributed among other Catholic churches in the country.
The first organ came from Marcussen from Aabenraa . Today, a Starup organ in the Ansgar Cathedral is in service, which comes from the Sionskirche in Copenhagen's Østerbro district and was installed in 1995.
Originally clear glass windows were installed, but these were replaced by light stained glass mosaics at the instigation of Bishop Johannes von Euch in 1885–94, showing some saints.
The cathedral houses the skull relic of Pope Lucius I (St. Lucius), which was previously kept in Roskilde Cathedral . Lucius was beheaded in Rome in 254 .
The altar painting was created by Leopold Kupelwieser , professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. It was a gift from Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria .
In 1864/65 the apse was designed by Joseph Settegast from Düsseldorf according to Hetsch's plans. The subject of the painting is the Trinity flanked by Danish and other Nordic saints.
The cathedra has been in the middle of the choir since 1995, a new altar is by Wohlert.
The bell tower was only built in 1943 by Gunnar Glahn and now houses three bells. The largest bell with the strike note F is called the Savior's Bell. The medium-sized bell is called St. Ansgar and strikes the note A. The small Marienglocke strikes the note b.
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Coordinates: 55 ° 41 ′ 10 " N , 12 ° 35 ′ 33" E