Svendborg Friary was a
Franciscan
The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...
friary in
Svendborg
Svendborg () is a town on the island of Funen in south-central Denmark, and the seat of Svendborg Municipality. With a population of 27,300 (1 January 2022), Svendborg is Funen's second largest city.[Funen
Funen ( da, Fyn, ), with an area of , is the third-largest island of Denmark, after Zealand and Vendsyssel-Thy. It is the 165th-largest island in the world. It is located in the central part of the country and has a population of 469,947 as of ...]
, in the present
Region of Southern Denmark
The Region of Southern Denmark ( da, Region Syddanmark, ; german: Region Süddänemark, ; frr, Regiuun Syddanmark) is an administrative Regions of Denmark, region of Denmark established on Monday 1 January 2007 as part of the 2007 Danish Munici ...
, and was one of the earliest Franciscan foundations in
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark
...
. Like almost all Danish religious houses it was dissolved during the
Protestant Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
of the 16th century.
History
The first Franciscan establishment in Svendborg was the chapel built in 1236. This building was destroyed when the town of Svendborg was burned to the ground by King
Abel of Denmark
Abel Valdemarsen (1218 – 29 June 1252) was Duke of Schleswig from 1232 to 1252 and King of Denmark from 1250 until his death in 1252. He was the son of Valdemar II by his second wife, Berengaria of Portugal, and brother to kings Eric IV and ...
in 1247 after a short siege. Another friary was built in about 1288 as the result of a gift of land for a chapel for the Franciscans from Herr Astrad Frakke, Herr Niels Bille (the brother of Bishop
Johannes Bille), Herr Niels Beger and several other local nobles. Count
Gert of Holstein and his son also made gifts of properties to support the Franciscan friars in Svendborg. In 1268 Lady
Gro Gunnarsdatter Vint, the extremely wealthy widow of
Esbjørn Vognsen, gave away her considerable fortune to abbeys, priories and friaries throughout Denmark when she joined the
Poor Clares
The Poor Clares, officially the Order of Saint Clare ( la, Ordo sanctae Clarae) – originally referred to as the Order of Poor Ladies, and later the Clarisses, the Minoresses, the Franciscan Clarist Order, and the Second Order of Saint Francis ...
in
Roskilde
Roskilde ( , ) is a city west of Copenhagen on the Danish island of Zealand. With a population of 51,916 (), the city is a business and educational centre for the region and the 10th largest city in Denmark. It is governed by the administrative ...
. The "brothers'
riars'chapel at Svendborg" is specifically mentioned in the list of her beneficiaries.
The
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
church was completed in 1361 and was dedicated to
Saint Catherine. Svendborg was burned by the Hanseatic Fleet in 1389, after which the friary was rebuilt yet again. During the 15th century it expanded considerably, and the buildings were extended several times.
The main friary precinct of this period consisted of a rectangular enclosure containing a church, dormitory, refectory, and servants' quarters, as well as a cloister surrounding a central garden. The buildings were constructed from red brick, the most common building material at the time.
The friary had a close connection with St. George's Chapel and Hospital just outside Svendborg, the last remaining medieval
leper hospital
A leper colony, also known by many other names, is an isolated community for the quarantining and treatment of lepers, people suffering from leprosy. '' M. leprae'', the bacterium responsible for leprosy, is believed to have spread from East Af ...
in Denmark.
One of the most controversial times for the friary was in 1500 when
Queen Christina, who was at that point in direct control of Svendborg, gave the whole of Bysen Street (''Bysenstræde'') to the Franciscans to use as accommodation for the town's poor and sick in their care. The mayor and the town council strongly disapproved of this action, which caused a severe rift between the town and the friary.
Dissolution
During the short civil war known as the
Count's Feud
The Count's Feud ( da, Grevens Fejde), also called the Count's War, was a war of succession that raged in Denmark in 1534–36 and brought about the Reformation in Denmark. In the international context, it was part of the European wars of religi ...
(Danish:Grevens Fejde), Svenborg made the mistake of siding with Count
Christoffer
Christopher is the English language, English version of a Europe-wide name derived from the Greek language, Greek name Χριστόφορος (''Christophoros'' or ''Christoforos''). The constituent parts are Χριστός (''Christós''), "Jesus ...
, acting for
Christian II of Denmark
Christian II (1 July 1481 – 25 January 1559) was a Scandinavian monarch under the Kalmar Union who reigned as King of Denmark and Norway, from 1513 until 1523, and Sweden from 1520 until 1521. From 1513 to 1523, he was concurrently Duke ...
. When
Christian III
Christian III (12 August 1503 – 1 January 1559) reigned as King of Denmark from 1534 and King of Norway from 1537 until his death in 1559. During his reign, Christian formed close ties between the church and the crown. He established ...
's troops took Svenborg and the rest of Fynen in 1534, they pillaged the town and its churches. With the Lutherans now firmly in control of the town and country, the priory was permanently closed, though by the end of 1530 it had been abandoned by the Franciscans. The last guardian of the priory, Hans Gaas, quickly accepted the and became the first Lutheran pastor of Our Lady's Church (Danish:Vor Frue Kirke) in Svendborg. The priory was taken over by the town. The friars went to other Franciscan houses outside Denmark or returned to secular life.
The friary church became a parish church for the people of Svendborg. The east wing was demolished shortly after the Reformation. The west wing of the priory was converted into a Latin school which operated until 1740. The buildings where the Latin School had been located were torn down in 1875. In 1586 the north wing of the friary was turned into a hospital founded by Lady Helvig Hardenberg. The old hospital was torn down in 1870.
After dissolution
By 1828 the former friary church had fallen into serious disrepair and the town council decided to demolish it. The buildings were blown up, the ground levelled and the site in the town centre redeveloped with houses and shops: some buildings used parts of the old friary walls as foundations. The churchyard containing thousands of common and noble graves was cleared and the most recently buried bodies transferred to a cemetery a few streets away. The
altarpiece
An altarpiece is an artwork such as a painting, sculpture or relief representing a religious subject made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting o ...
however was preserved and is now located in
Thurø
Thurø is a small Danish island in the south-east of Funen and belongs to the Svendborg municipality. Thurø is part of the South Funen Archipelago, comprising c. 55 islands altogether. The island had 3,555 inhabitants .
Connected to Svendborg p ...
Church.
Recent excavations by Svendborg Museum have revealed that the later friary complex was much larger than was previously thought, and contained many structures in addition to the old rectangular layout.
Sources
*
Svendborg Klosterkirke
{{coord missing, Denmark
1236 establishments in Europe
1288 establishments in Europe
1361 establishments in Europe
1530 disestablishments
1828 disestablishments
1870 disestablishments in Denmark
1875 disestablishments
Excavations
Franciscan monasteries in Denmark
Funen
Monasteries dissolved under the Danish Reformation