Aarhus Cathedral: Principal Church of the Diocese of Aarhus
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Denmark
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Danish
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page22 sections
History
Aarhus Cathedral is a medieval brick church in Aarhus, Denmark, whose construction began shortly after 1190 in the Romanesque period and whose later rebuilding created a major Gothic cathedral. Dedicated to St Clement, the traditional patron saint of sailors, it is the principal church of the Diocese of Aarhus and remains an active cathedral of the Lutheran Church of Denmark. Before the Reformation, it served as a Roman Catholic cathedral.
Viking-Age Aarhus and the first churches
Aarhus grew near the mouth of the Aarhus River as a Viking settlement. Its first city wall dates from 934, and six runestones found in or near the town point to its importance during the Viking Age. The city was known by several forms, including Aros, Arus, Aarhus, Aars, and Aarss. Aarhus became the established form after the Danish Reformation.
The town’s first church was the timber Holy Trinity Church, built around 900 during the reign of Frode, a legendary king of Jutland. It stood on a pagan burial site in the centre of the settlement. Reginbrand became the first bishop of Aros in 948 under the Archbishop of Hamburg. The diocese came under the Archbishop of Viborg in 1060 and had been regarded as a dependent diocese before 998.
St Nikolai’s Church was the first cathedral of Aros. A second cathedral, a timber church built near the present cathedral by Bishop Ulfketil in 1102, housed relics of St Clement. That first St Clement’s Church later burned, before work began on the present building.
St Niels and the foundation of the present cathedral
The earlier St Clement’s Church was also associated with the local veneration of St Niels of Aarhus. Tradition describes Niels as a younger son of King Canute V who left court life, built a church near Skibby, and assisted local people. His association with a miraculous spring near Viby made the spring a pilgrimage destination, especially on St John’s Day. When Niels died in 1180, he requested burial in the “little church by the sea,” and he was buried in the churchyard of St Clement’s.
Construction of the present cathedral began shortly after 1190 under Bishop Peder Vognsen, a member of the Zealand Hvide family. Vognsen built the new cathedral around the existing St Clement’s Church so that the local cult of St Niels could be transferred to the larger institution. He also founded the Aarhus cathedral school before the building was finished.
Romanesque construction and Gothic rebuilding
The cathedral was completed in 1300 in Romanesque form. This early medieval style used rounded arches and comparatively heavy, low forms. The building then suffered a major disaster in 1330, when a fire destroyed the cathedral and much of Aarhus. The church was abandoned until 1449.
After 1449, the cathedral was enlarged and rebuilt in Gothic form through successive stages. Gothic architecture raised the ceilings, enlarged windows, and created taller interior spaces, while the Aarhus rebuilding used brick rather than relying mainly on cut stone. The work brought the nave to its present length and the building to approximately its current size around 1500.
The Reformation and later history
The Reformation, the sixteenth-century movement that challenged Roman Catholic institutions and doctrines in northern Europe, changed the cathedral’s religious and institutional setting. Lutheran ideas spread through Aarhus during the 1520s, and townspeople demanded worship in Danish. Hans Tausen, a leading Danish Lutheran reformer, helped spread these ideas in the city.
During the Count’s Feud, the Danish civil war of 1534 to 1536 that helped decide whether Denmark would remain Catholic or become Lutheran, Christian III defeated forces supporting the restoration of the Catholic Christian II. In the summer of 1536, Christian III imprisoned several bishops, including Ove Bille, the last Roman Catholic bishop of Aarhus. Denmark then officially became Lutheran, and Aarhus Cathedral entered the institutional life of the Church of Denmark, Denmark’s Lutheran national church.
Lightning struck the cathedral tower in 1642 and started a fire. Several historic bells were affected, although the interior suffered little damage. The tower acquired its present form in 1931. The cathedral was designated a listed building on 1 February 2012. Modern conservation has included work on the principal altarpiece between 1975 and 1981, repeated restoration and rebuilding of the organs, and restoration of the main organ between 2018 and 2020.
Remains
Aarhus Cathedral is a brick basilica, a church with a central nave and lower side spaces, that combines Romanesque origins with extensive Gothic rebuilding. It measures 93 metres in length and has a single tower 96 metres high. The building accommodates approximately 1,200 people. Its original construction used large red bricks, then a relatively new material for churches and public buildings in Scandinavia and northern Germany. The Romanesque interior had rounded vault arches supporting a flat timber ceiling, while four chapels were built into the north transept.
Gothic structure and painted interior
Gothic rebuilding
The later rebuilding widened the transept, extended the nave to 93 metres, and replaced the earlier ceiling arrangement with raised Gothic vaulting. Large high windows introduced more light into the interior. The surviving structure therefore presents the physical result of several building stages, beginning with the Romanesque brick church and continuing through the Gothic enlargement.
Frescoes
Frescoes painted between approximately 1470 and 1520 cover about 220 square metres, forming the largest surviving collection of church frescoes in Denmark. Many paintings were lost after the Reformation, while those covered after 1536 were uncovered and carefully restored during the 1990s. The surviving subjects include St Christopher, St Clement, St George and the dragon, and a three-part composition showing Purgatory, the Last Judgment, and St Michael weighing human souls. The figures of St Christopher and St Clement are the tallest figural frescoes in Denmark.
Lazarus Window
At the northwest corner is the only surviving window from the Romanesque period. Its surrounding fresco dates to approximately 1300. Known as the Lazarus Window, it is believed to have allowed food to be passed to people with leprosy who were not permitted to enter the church.
Stained glass
The cathedral’s stained-glass window was created in 1926 by the Norwegian artist Emanuel Vigeland. Rising 14 metres, it is the largest stained-glass window in Denmark. Its subject comes from a hymn by Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig, and its three scenes show Christ laid in the tomb, the Crucifixion, and Christ standing in golden light. In the Crucifixion scene, Christ’s head falls to the left rather than to the right, as in traditional representations.
Furnishings and liturgical art
Altarpiece
The Gothic altarpiece was carved by the Lubeck sculptor and painter Bernt Notke and dedicated on Easter Sunday in 1479. It is a large pentaptych, an altarpiece made of five movable sections that can display different scenes during the church year. The liturgical panel shows festivals from Christmas to Ash Wednesday, the Passion panel is used from Ash Wednesday to Easter, the liturgical panel returns from Easter until Advent, and the Advent panel is displayed from the first Sunday of Advent until Christmas Eve. The carved figures are covered with 23.5-carat gold.
In the central panel, St Clement stands opposite St John the Baptist, the patron of Bishop Jens Iversen Lange, who funded the work. Mary and her mother, St Anne, hold the Christ Child at the centre. The side panels show the twelve apostles with their attributes, while the upper section depicts the Coronation of Mary with the archangels Gabriel and Michael. The predella, the lower section of an altarpiece, shows Christ as judge at the Last Judgment. During conservation from 1975 to 1981, old varnish was removed and the gilded surfaces polished, restoring the original appearance of the liturgical panel.
Baptismal font
The copper baptismal font was cast in 1481 by Peter Hansen, a Flensburg bell founder, and donated by Bishop Jens Iversen Lange. Its basin rests on human figures representing the four Evangelists, whose heads are replaced by their traditional attributes: an eagle for John, a lion for Mark, an ox for Luke, and a human figure for Matthew. Reliefs show the Baptism of Christ, the Crucifixion, Christ as judge at the Last Judgment, and the Coronation of the Virgin Mary. Nine apostles accompany these scenes, including Peter with a key, James the Greater with pilgrim insignia, Thomas with a censer, and Bartholomew with a skin over his shoulder. The font was originally open, and baptism was carried out by triple immersion. A brass cover and a silver vessel for pouring water over a child’s head were added later.
Pulpit and Golden Door
The Renaissance pulpit was carved from oak by the Flemish woodcarver Mikkel van Groningen and placed in use in 1588. Its nine reliefs trace scenes from the Old and New Testaments, including the Fall of the first humans, the Annunciation, Nativity, Baptism, Last Supper, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Pentecost, and Last Judgment. Judas is set apart in the Last Supper scene by the money pouch he holds.
The Golden Door is one of five wrought-iron gates separating the nave, the principal space for the congregation, from the choir, the area historically reserved for clergy. Made by the German-born artist Caspar Fincke, it consists of four panels formed from geometric shapes and curved lines covered with gold. The square represents humanity, while the circle represents heaven.
Tower, bells, and suspended ship
Bells
Eight bells hang in the tower. The oldest, Martinus, was cast in the mid-thirteenth century. Other bells date from 1493, 1505, 1746, 1762, 1893, 1893, and 1894. The tower fire of 1642 affected several earlier historic bells.
Enigheden
The votive ship Enigheden, dated 1720 and probably built in the Netherlands, hangs at the crossing, the space where the nave and transept intersect. Aarhus fishermen acquired it after a model associated with an order for warships by Peter the Great survived the sinking of a transport near Skagen. They presented the model to the cathedral as a votive gift, an offering or memorial. It measures 2.65 metres long and 3.50 metres high, making it the largest church ship in a Danish church. It represents the voyage of human life from cradle to grave and commemorates those lost at sea.
Chapels, memorials, and burial spaces
The cathedral contains chapels, tombs, memorials, and a crypt holding the remains of thousands of people from all social ranks. The Marselis Chapel was made for the Marselis family by the Flemish Baroque sculptor Thomas Quellinus. Its high Baroque memorial is the largest of its type in Denmark, and a family burial vault lies beneath the floor.
Other commemorative features include a 1587 memorial slab over the grave of the noblewoman Metta Urne, a 1702 memorial for a couple who donated 100 thalers to the cathedral, and a portrait of Bishop Jens Iversen Lange.
Organs
Main organ
The main pipe organ was built in 1730 by Lambert Daniel Kastens, a pupil of the Hamburg organ maker Arp Schnitger. It originally had 43 stops on three manuals and a pedal. J. A. Demant expanded it in 1876, and Theodor Frobenius rebuilt it between 1927 and 1929 with 84 stops and four manuals, retaining the original facade and some of Kastens’s stops. Further alterations followed during the 1940s.
The organ was restored in 1958 with a tonal character partly shaped by the Baroque tradition, including shortened original French Frobenius pipes. Work in 1981 to 1983 sought to recover its 1927 symphonic sound while retaining the clarity introduced in 1958. An electromagnetic bellows mechanism and a setter system with three banks of 256 combinations were installed in 1993. The present instrument has 89 stops on four manuals and a pedal, making it the largest church organ in Denmark. Most of its current stops were built by Th. Frobenius & Sons between 1928 and 2001, and the latest restoration took place from 2018 to 2020.
Smaller organs
A smaller Neo-Baroque organ was built in 1970 by Bruno Christensen & Sons for weddings, smaller services, and concerts. It has 23 stops on two manuals and a pedal. The cathedral also contains a movable four-stop positive organ.
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