Vestervig Kirke

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Vestervig Church (north side)

The Romanesque Vestervig Kirke is located near the place of the same name in the extreme southwest of the island of Thy in northern Denmark . It was built by the Augustinians in the early 11th century and is considered the largest village church in Scandinavia . It was possibly an episcopal church from 1070 to 1134. At the same time, it served as a landmark for seafaring.

Buildings and equipment

The three-aisled basilica made of high-quality granite ashlar masonry was originally 6 m longer to the west. The choir , which has also been shortened in the meantime , was reconstructed in 1898 based on archaeological finds. The south side bears a well-preserved sundial , one of the oldest in Northern Europe. Such canonical sundials were used by the monks to determine the times of prayer. The Vesterviger clock face has thirteen sections, the prayer times third , sixth and non are marked . The church has an organ made by Marcussen & Søn in 1978.

Surroundings

An Iron Age Byhøj has been excavated north of the church . Nearby are the Mølle Monastery , a Dutch-style mill, and the ruins of a church, the founding of which is attributed to St. Thøger .

The grave of Liden Kirsten and Prince Buris

Hexameter verses indicate that brother and sister rested under these stones.

In the church cemetery there is an unusual grave with a 3.40 m long gravestone and gravestones at both ends. They are dated around 1200. A scientific study in 1962 came to the result that the buried were a man between 50 and 60 and a woman between 30 and 35 years old. There was no evidence of royal ancestry.

Local tradition, however, linked the grave with the unhappy pair of lovers in the Danish folk song, Liden Kirsten and Prince Buris. Therefore, the wedding custom has been preserved that the bride places her bridal bouquet on the grave after the church wedding in order to give it to the dead.

Legend

Liden Kirsten (German: Klein Kirsten), sister of the Danish king Waldemar I , loved his brother-in-law Buris. At the instigation of Queen Sophie, Kirsten and Buris became a couple - against Waldemar's will. During the king's absence, Kirsten gave birth to a daughter. When he returned from England, the king found out about it. As a punishment, he danced his sister to death. But he had Buris blinded and imprisoned in a tower at Vestervig's cemetery. The iron chain that bound Buris was just long enough that he could reach the grave of his beloved. Twelve years later, the unfortunate man died and was buried next to Kirsten.

The hateful Queen Sophie rode over the tomb one day. But the gravestone was not as hard as the queen's heart: it bore marks from the horse's hooves.

The composer Johann Peter Emilius Hartmann (1805–1900) took up the theme in several of his works, including the opera Liden Kirsten (1849), the libretto of which was written by Hans Christian Andersen . The Thy-based playwright Gunnar Iversen (* 1938) wrote Spillet om Liden Kirsten og prins Buris , performed near the church in 1992.

photos

Outside

  • From the southeast

  • From the west

  • relief

  • South portal

  • Tympanum on the south portal

  • Liden Kirsten's grave by Jacob Kornerup

Inside

  • Central nave

  • Frescoes

  • altar

  • Baptismal font

  • pulpit

  • Pastors since the Reformation began

literature

  • Jette Kjær: Antiquities from Thy. 23 sights from antiquity and the Viking Age of the Danish landscape Thy , 1976

Web links

Commons : Vestervig Kirke  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 56 ° 46 ′ 23.5 ″  N , 8 ° 19 ′ 2 ″  E