In one of my previous posts I showed you a photo from Holmen's Cemetery. About 5 km's away lies the church it belong to. Placed just opposite the Danish parliament at Christiansborg Castle and next to the canal, and thereby the harbor, this church of the Navy is a beautiful little church. Holmen's Church is the main military church in Denmark and is also used from time to time in Royal ceremonies eg the wedding between Princess (now Queen) Margrethe and Prince Henrik in 1967.
The first church here was consecrated in 1620 by the great builder King Christian IV. He was responsible for building a great number of castles, palaces and other public or royal buildings...and thereby he was responsible for the bankruptcy of Denmark too. This church started out as an anchor forge for the Navy in 1562 but a great influx of people to Copenhagen meant that a new church was needed, and it was decided in 1617 to change it into a church. The church was soon too small, so it was rebuild in it's present cruciform in 1641. The spire was added at this time too.
Some of the greatest Danish naval heroes is buried here, among them Niels Juel and Peder Tordenskjold. It's still in use as a military church but today the church is also an ordinary parish church.
This concludes my theme about churches for now. I might return to it on a later date, but a new theme starts tomorrow. For the next couple of weeks I'll switch to modern buildings mainly in Copenhagen. I hope you have enjoyed this theme as much as I have, and that you'll enjoy the new theme.
The first church here was consecrated in 1620 by the great builder King Christian IV. He was responsible for building a great number of castles, palaces and other public or royal buildings...and thereby he was responsible for the bankruptcy of Denmark too. This church started out as an anchor forge for the Navy in 1562 but a great influx of people to Copenhagen meant that a new church was needed, and it was decided in 1617 to change it into a church. The church was soon too small, so it was rebuild in it's present cruciform in 1641. The spire was added at this time too.
Some of the greatest Danish naval heroes is buried here, among them Niels Juel and Peder Tordenskjold. It's still in use as a military church but today the church is also an ordinary parish church.
This concludes my theme about churches for now. I might return to it on a later date, but a new theme starts tomorrow. For the next couple of weeks I'll switch to modern buildings mainly in Copenhagen. I hope you have enjoyed this theme as much as I have, and that you'll enjoy the new theme.
Beautiful! I've loved every minute of this theme...I have never visited Denmark, but your photographs have made it one of the top destinations on my travel wishlist!! Looking forward to your next theme...To morph a line from Emily Dickinson,"There is no frigate like a BLOG...(my substitution for the original "book")...Especially if the blog belongs to Christopher! Cheers! ~Janine
ReplyDeleteI could have just copied and pasted 'Sniffles and Smiles' comment. Great finale, I am very interested in modern Copenhagen.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the nice comments on this one. As some might guess I've left out quite a few interesting churches in Denmark, but never tell all in one go if you want people to come back :-)
ReplyDeleteSo, is this the end? I don't wanna part with it :). Thanks for the valuable information. I'm just going to tell you that all I knew about Denmark before finding your great photo blog were MLTR, butter cookies, Scandinavia and a few trivia facts.
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