St. Mary's Church, Sønderborg, Denmark

The St. Mary's Church in Sønderborg is located on a hill and is a very iconic for the city. In the Middle Ages there was a leper colony on a hill just outside the city. It was named after Saint George and around 1300 the chapel of this leper colony stood in the place of the present St. Mary's Church. After the old parish church of the city, the St. Nicholas Church, was demolished around 1530, the Saint-George chapel became the new main church. Towards the end of the 16th century, John II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg commissioned the enlargement of the building in order to make it suitable for the function of the parish church of his city.

In 1595 a start was made on the partial demolition of the old church and the construction of the new church. Only parts of the old medieval church remained. From the medieval church, a medieval wooden wall cupboard dating from about 1400 remained. The solemn inauguration of the new parish church took place just before Christmas in 1600. In 1649 the George Church was renamed as the Mary Church.

References:

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User Reviews

Eugen Safin (15 months ago)
Quite a beautiful church with picturesque views onto the bay from the church square.

Jesper Nielsen (17 months ago)
Beautiful church from the outside, however, was locked when we visited the place, but went for a walk in the cemetery instead and it is a "must see". With the many wars tombs and monuments

Johanne labansen (17 months ago)
Both Danish and German speaking services

Ole von Barm (18 months ago)
Very nice funeral, but the organist could not find (did not) nodes for the desired postal tuition which is otherwise publicly available on the net with 3 - 4 clicks. The deceased was, of course, only the former cleaning wife.

Plamen Popov (2 years ago)
Beautiful red bricks church

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