Monday, April 20, 2009

A church that is no church


This a church that is no longer a church. It's an art center. Even though it's still called St. Nicholas's Church it hasn't been a church for more than 200 years! Part of it burned in 1795 and it ceased being a church in 1805. The spire is a reconstruction paid for by art patron and brewer Carl Jacobsen (have I mentioned him before?) in 1909 and only the tower beneath is the original building. The rest is a reconstruction from 1912 and has been used as a library, a look out place for firemen and a naval museum. Since 1981 it's been an art center for Copenhagen City.

The original church was build in the 13th Century and is the 3rd oldest church in Copenhagen. In the 16th Century it was the center for the spreading of the Danish Reformation, mainly because of its priest Hans Tausen.

BTW it's a challenge to photograph this building; it's tall with only a little space around it and the high buildings on both sides assure that there's only sun on part of it. That's why I've chosen to take the photo of the tower from a side street.

3 comments:

  1. Great story and understandable difficulty of shooting. You overcomed it very well, I have been many times in this situation with not so happy results!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Even though it has been re-purposed...It's beautiful! Wanted to thank you for stopping by over the weekend...I LOVE the poem you left on my site...it's really terrific! Have a great week! ~Janine

    ReplyDelete
  3. Janine: For more poems, actually called gruks, by Piet Hein, visit the link

    http://chat.carleton.ca/~tcstewar/grooks/grooks.html

    And I've got to thank you for your many kind comments on this page too:-)

    Vogon: Thanks for the praise. I'm a bit stubborn, so I keep trying until I get a result I like.

    Asta: I think that more and more churches in Copenhagen will be re-purposed because of the very small number of church goers. And this is a better use than eg. a mall:-)

    ReplyDelete

Please feel free to share a thought, an idea or an opinion by leaving a comment. I'll try to answer the comments as best I can, but you'll usually have to wait a day or two :-)