St. Jørgensbjerg Church

Roskilde, Denmark

St. Jørgensbjerg church is the oldest preserved stone building in Denmark. Built of travertine circa 1100, it may have been inspired by the Roskilde's cathedral predecessor, a travertine church from 1080, built by Bishop Svend Nordmand. The bricked-up north door of the church may also stem from its predecessor from circa 1040, which was investigated in excavations undertaken in 1953-54. If it does, the north door is Denmark's oldest piece of medieval architecture.

The slender billets at the corners and in the middle of the nave are quite unique. Such billets are only found in wooden churches, hence its name 'a fossilized wooden church'. There are many interesting details in the interior of the church. A model of a medieval merchant vessel, a so-called 'kogge', has been engraved in the wall.

Address

Kirkegade 26A, Roskilde, Denmark

See all sites in Roskilde

Details

Founded: c. 1100
Category: Religious sites in Denmark
Historical period: The First Kingdom (Denmark)

More Information

www.kulturarv.dk

Rating

4.2/5 (based on Google user reviews)

Interesting Sites Nearby

Roskilde Cathedral (0,8 km)
Roskilde Palace (0,9 km)
St. Lawrence's Church Ruins (0,9 km)
Viking Ship Museum (0,2 km)
Roskilde Abbey (1,3 km)

City Hall (31,1 km)
Caritas Well (31,3 km)
National Museum of Denmark (31,4 km)
Church of Our Lady (31,3 km)
Frederiksborg Palace (34,7 km)
Copenhagen Botanical Garden (31,5 km)
Frederiksberg Palace (28,3 km)
Jarmers Tower Ruins (30,9 km)
Museum of Copenhagen (31,3 km)

User Reviews

Stefan Odd Gruszczynski (2 years ago)
Nice little church which become a part of Roskilde in 1938.

Taku KURIBAYASHI (3 years ago)
wasn’t open

Marlene Davidsen (3 years ago)
Was for baptism. Very inspiring priest?

Henrik Hansen (3 years ago)
Cozy little village churches in Roskilde.

Inger Marie Andersen (4 years ago)
Small church and small cemetery but nice is the church sct jørgensbjerg Inger Marie A

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

Finest Norman castles in Italy

Exploring the History of Northern Poland

Discovering Slovenia's Historic Wonders

Photo from Flickr, copyright Christian Lauw

Historic Site of the week

Wieskirche

The Pilgrimage Church of Wies (Wieskirche) is an oval rococo church, designed in the late 1740s by Dominikus Zimmermann. It is located in the foothills of the Alps in the municipality of Steingaden.

The sanctuary of Wies is a pilgrimage church extraordinarily well-preserved in the beautiful setting of an Alpine valley, and is a perfect masterpiece of Rococo art and creative genius, as well as an exceptional testimony to a civilization that has disappeared.

The hamlet of Wies, in 1738, is said to have been the setting of a miracle in which tears were seen on a simple wooden figure of Christ mounted on a column that was no longer venerated by the Premonstratensian monks of the Abbey. A wooden chapel constructed in the fields housed the miraculous statue for some time. However, pilgrims from Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and even Italy became so numerous that the Abbot of the Premonstratensians of Steingaden decided to construct a splendid sanctuary.