St. Nicolai Church (Vejle)
The St. Nicolai Church ( Sct. Nicolai Kirke ) is Vejle's oldest church and was the only parish church in the city until 1907 . It belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran People's Church in Denmark .
The red brick building in historicist style dates from the 19th century, although a church can be found at its location since the Middle Ages. An archaeologically interesting as touristic curiosity is the bier in an oak coffin Iron Age bog body .
history
According to general opinion, the earliest predecessor of today's church was built in the first half of the 13th century. The first written mention of the church is in connection with the synod that met in Vejle in March 1256 under the chairmanship of the Archbishop of Lund, Jakob Erlandsen , and is also the first mention of the city in a traditional document.
The medieval building had only two aisles and a smaller tower . Around 1518, when the church was already Protestant , the transept with the Holy Cross and Trinity Chapel was added.
It only got its current shape when it was rebuilt in 1855/56, the choir was moved by three meters so that it was back on the central axis of the church after the third nave was added to the south. The large brick bell tower was added in 1887/88. The building was completely renovated in 1965/66.
Sankt Nicolai today
An overview of the structure
Today the Nicolaikirche presents itself as a three-aisled hall church in an approximate east-west orientation with a transept and a bell tower above the main portal.
The tower has a total height of 27.3 m and carries a weathercock 1.3 m long. It houses a tower clock from 1889, as well as bells and a 48-piece carillon that were added in the second half of the 1970s. Several times a day, changing melodies are played over the course of the year; A half-hour concert is played on Sundays.
The oldest preserved substance comes to light in the northwest of the nave: the arches of bricked-up Gothic windows and the former women's entrance on the north side can still be seen on the exposed outer wall . The numerous alterations since the construction are clearly recognizable in the entire church building through differences in the masonry.
Also striking are 23 round cavities in the brick wall, arranged in a diamond pattern along the northern outer side, which contained skulls of unknown origin, dated around 1630.
The church rests directly on the ground without foundations . It was originally surrounded by an enclosed cemetery, the graves of which had to give way to road construction in 1839 and were reburied in a new resting place on Jernbanegade a few hundred meters away.
Over the centuries several mayors and elders were buried with their wives in the building itself. The grave slabs were removed from the church floor in 1862 and set into the wall of the apse. The family grave of the honorary Kai de la Mare († 1703) in the Holy Cross Choir in the north transept is still intact.
Besides the three coffins of the founder and his wives contains coffins with the remains of an unknown dead from the 17th century and in 1835 discovered the body of the wife of Haraldskær which is first for the semi-legendary Viking princess Sigrid and the legendary Norwegian Queen Gunnhild had held .
organ
In 1862 the church received an organ from Marcussen & Søn with 16 stops on two manuals and pedal . The AC Zachariasen & Søn workshop expanded the organ to 24 registers in 1910; further restorations were carried out by Frobenius Orgelbau in 1925 and 1942 , and the instrument was also expanded. The Rückpositiv was added to the last-mentioned works, the organ now had 41 stops, one of which remained vacant until the instrument was removed.
In 1969 the Frobenius Orgelbau workshop removed the organ and built a new instrument with 31 registers as Opus 605 in the older and specially adapted cases, one of which is designed as a transmission . A mechanical action controls the organ's slide chests. It is located above the entrance at the west end of the central nave . The disposition is as follows:
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- Coupling : I / II, III / II, I / P, II / P, III / P
Sacred treasures
Since Vejle was a poor town until the beginning of industrialization in Denmark and the church suffered from fire, plague and the afflictions of war especially in the 16th and 17th centuries , the furnishings are rather simple in comparison. The majority of the preserved pieces date from the first half of the 19th century and come from donations from wealthier citizens in the area.
Notable exceptions are the stone baptismal font of Dutch origin from about 1625 with a base of the 12th century, next to the restored to their original state Renaissance - pulpit from 1576, but above all from the impressive altar , the 1791 by the hand of the woodcarver Jens Hjernøes has been completed. The middle piece of the three-leaf work of art is a copy of a resurrection scene from the Cathedral of Bayeux in Normandy .
use
The custom of consecrating Christian sacred buildings in port cities to Saint Nicholas of Myra , who is considered the patron saint of seafarers, was also complied with in Vejle when the town's church was given its current name in 1491. The traditional connection between faith and seafaring is evidenced by a votive ship donated anonymously in 1938 , a model of the sailor “Dorthea Marie”.
The activities of the evangelical parish continue to take place under the roof of the church, along with concerts and cultural events.
literature
- Hvass, Lone: Fra vadested til by . Vejle, 1997 (= Vejle's history 1). ISBN 87-90086-12-0
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Information on the organ at www.orgbase.nl, accessed on December 25, 2019
- ↑ Entry in the database of Hans-Dieter Weisel ( Memento from July 11, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), Version 20, as of January 1, 2008, accessed on December 25, 2019
- ↑ Catalog raisonné by Th. Frobenius og Sønner Orgelbyggeri A / S , accessed on December 25, 2019
- ↑ Information on the organ at www.doks.dk , accessed on December 25, 2019
- ↑ CA combined with Gedakt 8 '
- ↑ CA as a combined register from an 8 ′ and a 5 1 ⁄ 3 ′ series
- ↑ Transmission from Huvudverk
Coordinates: 55 ° 42 '26.3 " N , 9 ° 32' 4.4" E