Trinity Church, Kristianstad, Sweden

Trinity Church (Heliga Trefaldighetskyrkan) was built between 1617 and 1628 by Christian IV of Denmark. He had founded the city of Kristianstad in 1614 at a time when Scania was part of the Kingdom of Denmark. The church's large size and style reveal the king's ambitions for his new city.

Designed by the Flemish-Danish architect, Lorenz van Steenwinckel, the grandiose building is widely considered by many to be Scandinavia's finest Renaissance church. Its extensive nave is able to accommodate congregations of up to 1,400. Like many Danish churches of the times, it is built of red brick. But this church is decorated with many sandstone statues and ornaments, including several monograms of Christian IV, testifying to his involvement.

The well-preserved interior is decked with star-shaped cross vaults, supported by pillars of granite. Trinity Church has been little altered since it was built. The main addition is its 59-meter-tall tower constructed in 1865. The church is pleasantly and abundantly illuminated thanks to its 26 tall windows. The entrance through the western tower opens into a six-bay nave, with wide aisles, terminating in a projecting eastern sanctuary. The vaults are covered with a cross-gabled roof, with large ornamented gables on the north and south sides.

The pulpit, which is sculpted in Belgian and Italian marble, shows Christ and the four evangelists. The impressive canopy hanging above the pulpit weighs almost a ton. The Baroque organ case by German-born Johan Lorentz from 1630 is still equipped with the original pipes although the works themselves have been replaced. It is used both for concerts and church services. The delicately carved benches are as old as the church itself.

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User Reviews

Annika Zäll (6 months ago)
Otroligt stor fin kyrka, ursprungligen dansk från Kristians IV:s tid. En mycket vacker renässanskyrka den enda danska som finns kvar i ursprungligt skick då församlingen aldrig hade råd att bygga om. (till skillnad från de kvarvarande i Danmark som ändrats under århundraden)

Giorgio Berardi (8 months ago)
The Heliga Trefaltighetskyrka is an impressive building dating back to the 17th century with an interesting ground section and exquisite decorations. And, as usual, you have a display of the good deeds undertaken in the social sector by this branch of the Church of Sweden. Well worth spending some time wandering around and sitting in meditation.

Rick J (3 years ago)
A great engineering marvel and a monument to a time past when Kristianstad was Danish. The church was commissioned by the Danish king Christian that named the town.

Oliver Albrecht (3 years ago)
They have also a small table with drawing material for kids.

Thomas Karlsson (3 years ago)
Beautiful lutheran church built in the early 15th century. Offers a lot of free concerts. Open daily. No entrance fee.

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The Moszna Castle is one of the best known monuments in the western part of Upper Silesia. The history of this building begins in the 17th century, although much older cellars were found in the gardens during excavations carried out at the beginning of the 20th century. Some of the investigators, including H. Barthel, claimed that those cellars could have been remnants of a presumed Templar castle, but their theory has never been proved. After World War II, further excavations discovered a medieval palisade.

The central part of the castle is an old baroque palace which was partially destroyed by fire on the night of April 2, 1896 and was reconstructed in the same year in its original form by Franz Hubert von Tiele-Winckler. The reconstruction works involved an extension of the residence. The eastern Neogothic-styled wing of the building was built by 1900, along with an adjacent orangery. In 1912-1914, the western wing was built in the Neo-Renaissance style. The architectural form of the castle contains a wide variety of styles, thus it can be generally defined as eclectic.

The height of the building, as well as its numerous turrets and spires, give the impression of verticalism. The whole castle has exactly ninety-nine turrets. Inside, it contains 365 rooms. The castle was twice visited by the German Emperor Wilhelm II. His participation in hunting during his stay at the castle was documented in a hand-written chronicle in 1911 as well as in the following year. The castle in Moszna was the residence of a Silesian family Tiele-Winckler who were industrial magnates, from 1866 until the spring of 1945 when they were forced to move to Germany and the castle was occupied by the Red Army. The period of the Soviet control caused significant damage to the castle's internal fittings in comparison to the minor damage caused by WWII.

After World War II the castle did not have a permanent owner and was the home of various institutions until 1972 when it became a convalescent home. Later it became a Public Health Care Centre for Therapies of Neuroses. Nowadays it can be visited by tourists since the health institution has moved to another building in the neighbourhood. The castle also has a chapel which is used as a concert hall. Since 1998 the castle housed a gallery in which works of various artists are presented at regular exhibitions.

Apart from the castle itself, the entire complex includes a park which has no precise boundaries and includes nearby fields, meadows and a forest. Only the main axis of the park can be characterised as geometrical. Starting from the gate, it leads along the oak and then horse-chestnut avenues, towards the castle. Further on, the park passes into an avenue of lime trees with symmetrical canals running along both sides of the path, lined with a few varieties of rhododendrons. The axis of the park terminates at the base of a former monument of Hubert von Tiele-Winckler. On the eastern side of the avenue there is a pond with an islet referred to by the owners as Easter Island. The islet is planted with needle-leaved shrubs and can be reached by a Chinese-styled bridge. The garden, as part of the whole park complex was restored slightly earlier than the castle itself. Preserved documents of 1868 state that the improvement in the garden's aesthetic quality was undertaken by Hubert von Tiele-Winckler.

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