Jørlunde Church: A Romanesque Medieval Church in Denmark
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.2
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Denmark
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Danish
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page18 sections
History
Jørlunde Church is an Evangelical Lutheran medieval church in Jørlunde, Denmark, whose stone building was constructed after about 1085 in the Romanesque period. It stands in an area that formed the main settlement of Jørlunde Hundred during the late Viking Age, beside an important route between the Øresund and Roskilde Fjord. The church is traditionally regarded as the oldest church on Zealand.
Royal and aristocratic setting
Jørlunde occupied an important position in the eleventh-century landscape. The Græse River separated it from Slangerup, while the trade route connected the waters of the Øresund and Roskilde Fjord. A royal court belonging to King Sven Estridsson stood at Jørlunde during the second half of the eleventh century. Adam of Bremen visited Sven there in 1067 or 1068 and praised both the king and his efforts to spread Christianity.
The settlement was also connected with the Hvide family, a powerful Danish aristocratic lineage whose members promoted Christianity and built or equipped several churches. Skjalm Hvide served in Sven Estridsson’s campaigns and later, under Sven’s son and successor Erik I Ejegod, was entrusted with educating the heir Knud Lavard. Skjalm followed the example of his father, Toke Trylle, who had been baptized around 1040 and had built a wooden church at the family seat of Fjenneslev.
From wooden church to stone building
A wooden church stood at Jørlunde by the middle of the eleventh century. It burned around 1085, and Skjalm Hvide then commissioned a replacement in stone. The new church belonged originally to its landowner as a private church, but it soon passed to the Diocese of Roskilde. This transfer may have been connected with the appointment of Skjalm’s grandson Absalon as bishop of Roskilde in 1158. Absalon was a prominent medieval Danish churchman, and a bishop shown in the fourteenth-century vault decoration may reflect the church’s connection with the diocese.
The church’s frescoes are associated with the Jørlunde or Hvide-family workshop, whose members decorated other churches built or furnished by the family. The paintings are generally dated to around 1150. Their original appearance was later altered by the insertion of vaults and by nineteenth-century restoration, but their broad decorative program remains recognizable.
Medieval alterations
Changes began not long after the stone church was completed. The lower part of the tower was added in the thirteenth century. Around 1300, the apse and part of its decoration were removed when the chancel was extended in the Gothic manner. In the middle of the fourteenth century, brick vaults replaced the original flat ceiling over the chancel and nave. The church was also enlarged with a north porch and a sacristy, the south portal was blocked, the windows were enlarged, and the tower was raised to its present height.
The changes affected the Romanesque paintings. They were probably whitewashed no later than the installation of the vaults, which concealed parts of the earlier cycle. After the Reformation, the lord of Frederiksborg became the church’s patron. Otto von Pogwisch ordered a renovation in 1625, commemorated by a plaque, although the extent of the work is unknown. About forty years later, buttresses were added to reinforce the walls.
Rediscovery and later work
A major renovation in 1864 brought the Romanesque frescoes to light again. Parts of the paintings were supplemented during the work, and the later buttresses were removed. In 1887, the pastor found Gothic frescoes beneath deteriorating plaster. The archaeologist and architectural painter Jacob Kornerup restored these paintings in 1890.
Excavations during the 1963–65 renovation uncovered remains of the earlier wooden church, medieval glazing, and floor tiles. The church and its furnishings were given a lighter finish to make the Romanesque paintings more visible. Several previously unknown frescoes were removed and transferred to the museum at Spøttrup Castle, while fragments from the west-wall paintings were removed in 1964 for exhibition at the National Museum in Copenhagen.
The church remains affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran tradition and the Diocese of Elsinore. Its present organ was designed by Inger and Johannes Exner and built by Frobenius in 2009. Composer Frederik Magle created its tonal design. The organ has also been used for the recording of the album Like a Flame.
Remains
Stone church and medieval additions
Layout and construction
The surviving church consists of a nave, chancel, and the remains of an originally semicircular apse. The nave is the main body of the church, while the chancel is the eastern part containing the altar. The building was made mainly from fieldstone and was probably covered with white plaster. Because it stands on a hill with uneven natural ground, the chancel and altar are higher than the nave. A Romanesque chancel window survives, and the original church had a flat ceiling before the later vaults were inserted.
Tower, porch, and sacristy
The lower part of the tower is built from carefully cut ashlar blocks and dates from the thirteenth century. The tower was subsequently raised to its current height. On the north side, a porch with a stepped gable stands before the entrance, and a sacristy was added beside the chancel. These later additions are built of brick, as are the fourteenth-century vaults. Enlargement of the windows accompanied the blocking of the south portal.
Floors and excavated materials
The floor was formerly covered with brick before being laid with costly glazed green tiles decorated with lions and griffins. Excavations in 1963–65 recovered medieval tiles as well as remains of medieval glazing. These finds complement the surviving building by showing aspects of its interior finish and medieval construction history.
Frescoes and painted decoration
Romanesque cycle
The Romanesque fresco cycle is only partly original. A fresco is a wall painting applied to plaster, and at Jørlunde the paintings were covered before being rediscovered in the nineteenth century. Later vault construction concealed sections of the cycle, while the restoration of 1864 added substantial painted material. Even so, the principal arrangement and many of its subjects can still be followed.
The chancel arch, which separates the chancel from the nave, contains the Lamb of God between two angels. On the eastern wall of the nave, beside the chancel arch, the upper scene shows the raising of Lazarus. Below it is a meal that may depict the wedding at Cana or, more probably in this setting, the washing of the feet. Christ’s head in both scenes is surrounded by a stucco halo.
On the north side of the first chancel bay, scenes from the Passion begin with Christ’s entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. A painted representation of Mary with the Christ Child was added in the nineteenth century after fragmentary spectators had been mistakenly understood as the Holy Family. Behind a blocked window with a painted reveal is a partly cut-off Last Supper. Beneath the entry and Last Supper scenes runs a frieze of stylized birds and plants, accompanied by three busts of saints in perspectivally painted frames resembling Byzantine icons.
Chancel arch and apse imagery
The south side of the chancel arch carries scenes of Christ’s arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, including the Kiss of Judas, and the Crucifixion. A fragmentary image of Christ’s temptation once occupied the west side of the wall facing the chancel; it was removed in 1964. The lost apse vault probably showed Christ in Majesty, an image of Christ enthroned in heavenly glory, comparable to decoration at Tveje Merløse Church, another church associated with the Hvide family.
Gothic vault paintings
The fourteenth-century vaults retain colored decoration on their ribs and painted consoles bearing faces. A bishop appears among these images, although his identification as a saint remains uncertain because he has no halo. On the west wall are fragments of a 1510 Last Judgment painting. This type of cycle presents the final judgment of humanity, contrasting salvation with punishment. The surviving scenes show punishments corresponding to particular sins and include Saint Peter at the gate of Heaven. Some fragments were removed in 1964 and are exhibited at the National Museum in Copenhagen.
Furnishings and organ
Baptismal font and pulpit
The oldest surviving furnishing is a granite baptismal font dating from the period when the church was built. A baptismal font is the vessel used for Christian baptism. The plain pulpit dates from the nineteenth century, placing it among the later furnishings that remain in the church.
Seventeenth-century altarpiece
The altarpiece dates from 1613 and was donated by King Christian IV. An altarpiece is a decorated structure placed behind or above an altar. This example bears the arms of Christian IV and his wife, Anna Katharina of Brandenburg, who had died the previous year. Its central image depicts the Crucifixion, with the Resurrection shown in a smaller image above. Latin biblical texts from Romans 4:25 and 1 Peter 2:24 accompany the imagery.
The altarpiece has a carved and brightly painted frame. Female half-figures represent virtues, while angels and a small image of God the Father in a cloud occupy the gable. Its imagery and heraldic details preserve the character of a royal gift within the church’s later history.
Twentieth- and twenty-first-century organ
The present pipe organ was designed by Inger and Johannes Exner and constructed by Frobenius in 2009. It has 19 voices, 24 stops, 25 ranks, and 1,360 pipes. Pipes up to five metres long are described as the longest ever installed in a Danish village church. The instrument uses tracker key action and couplers with electrical stop action, while Frederik Magle created its tonal design.
