The Sand-Covered Church (Danish: ''Den Tilsandede Kirke'', also translated as The Buried Church, and also known as Old Skagen Church) is the name given to a late 14th-century church dedicated to Saint Lawrence of Rome. It was a brick church of considerable size, located southwest of the town centre of

Skagen Skagen () is Denmark's northernmost town, on the east coast of the Skagen Odde peninsula in the far north of Jutland, part of Frederikshavn Municipality in Nordjylland, north of Frederikshavn and northeast of Aalborg. The Port of Skagen is ...

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 ...

. During the last half of the 18th century the church was partially buried by sand from nearby dunes; the congregation had to dig out the entrance each time a service was to be held. The struggle to keep the church free of sand lasted until 1795, when it was abandoned. The church was demolished, leaving the tower with

crow-stepped gable A stepped gable, crow-stepped gable, or corbie step is a stairstep type of design at the top of the triangular gable-end of a building. The top of the parapet wall projects above the roofline and the top of the brick or stone wall is stacked in a ...

as the only part of the original structure still standing.

Architecture

The church is one of the oldest buildings in Skagen. It was built of brick in the Gothic style between 1355 and 1387 (the date of its first mention). The church had a long vaulted

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, with exterior buttresses, and a tower with crow-stepped gable, added around 1475. The

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

was on the north side, the porch on the south side, and the tower on the west end of the nave. The church was long including the tower, which is a bit more than high. The body of the church was built in red brick with a lead roof, and the tower raised in patterned yellow brick, which was

whitewash Whitewash, or calcimine, kalsomine, calsomine, or lime paint is a type of paint made from slaked lime ( calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2) or chalk calcium carbonate, (CaCO3), sometimes known as "whiting". Various other additives are sometimes used ...

ed over after 1816. The bricks were imported from the Netherlands and Germany, especially from

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...

. Approximately of the tower is visible above the sand today.

History

The church was mentioned for the first time in relation to the stranding of a

Hanseatic The Hanseatic League (; gml, Hanse, , ; german: label=German language, Modern German, Deutsche Hanse) was a Middle Ages, medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central Europe, Central and Norther ...

ship at Skagen on 31 March 1387. The first day 861 pieces of cloth were salvaged and brought to the nearest church. The next day the priest, Mr. Bernhard, brought another seven packages of cloth to the Sand-Covered Church. Queen

Margaret I of Denmark Margaret I ( da, Margrete Valdemarsdatter; March 1353 – 28 October 1412) was ruler of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden (which included Finland) from the late 1380s until her death, and the founder of the Kalmar Union that joined the Scandinavian k ...

received 400 pieces of cloth, and in 1394 ended up paying 320

nobles Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. The characteristi ...

in restitution even though the merchants valued the cloth at 2,750 nobles. The priest kept the seven packs of cloth but swore “by his dignity as a priest to report to the king and queen how many lengths they contained”. The church belonged to the

Crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...

until 1459, when ownership was handed over to the

Hospital of the Holy Ghost, Aalborg The Hospital of the Holy Ghost, Aalborg ( da, Helligåndsklostret i Aalborg), the buildings of which, although now without any religious function, are still known as ''Aalborg Kloster'' (lit. ''Aalborg Monastery''), is a former establishment of th ...

. Sand began drifting in from

Råbjerg Mile Råbjerg Mile is a migrating coastal dune between Skagen and Frederikshavn, Denmark. It is the largest moving dune in Northern Europe with an area of around 2 km2 (0.4 mi2) and a height of 40 m (130 ft) above sea level. It is al ...

around 1600, when the area surrounding the church was affected by the

desertification Desertification is a type of land degradation in drylands in which biological productivity is lost due to natural processes or induced by human activities whereby fertile areas become increasingly arid. It is the spread of arid areas caused by ...

which destroyed the fields; it buried the nearby village (near

) and had reached the church by the end of the 18th century. This sanding-over of land occurred in many coastal areas around the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

between 1400 and 1800, affecting Scotland, Denmark, and Holland; in the 1690s two such events took place in Scotland, and the desertification in the Skagen area happened over two centuries. On Great Prayer Day (Danish religious holiday celebrated on the fourth Friday after

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

) in 1775, the church door had to be dug free for the congregation to be able to attend the service, and for the following 20 years, the Skageners struggled to keep the church free from sand, without being allowed to close it down. The furnishings and interior decorations were removed and some items were sold. In 1795 the church was closed by royal decree and the body of the church demolished. The chalice, candlesticks, and a bell were used in the new

Skagen Church Skagen Church ( Danish: ''Skagen Kirke'') is a church located in the historic town centre of Skagen, Denmark. The Skagen area suffered from severe problems with sand drift up through the 18th century and in 1795 the sand covered old church had t ...

built by C. F. Hansen in 1841. The last funeral in the churchyard took place either in 1801 or in 1810, according to various accounts. In the late 19th century the

National Museum of Denmark The National Museum of Denmark (Nationalmuseet) in Copenhagen is Denmark's largest museum of cultural history, comprising the histories of Danish and foreign cultures, alike. The museum's main building is located a short distance from Strøget ...

, who now own the site, carried out a minor excavation near the tower. The site of the nave has never been excavated. It is believed that the floor, the altar, and the baptismal font are still there under the sand. All that is visible of the former church and the now-buried village is the whitewashed church tower, which is still maintained as a navigational landmark. The tower has been a

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

since before 1937, and it is one of the best-known Danish churches. Its tower has attracted attention from writers such as

Hans Christian Andersen Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen's fairy tales, consisti ...

, who used the church as a setting in his ''"En Historie fra Klitterne"''.

References

External links

"Skagen Klitplantage (Dünenplanzung)"
by the

Ministry of Environment (Denmark) Ministry of the Environment of Denmark ( da, Miljøministeriet) is the Danish ministry in charge of almost all matters concerning environmental issues in Denmark. The head office is in Copenhagen. Created in 1971 as the Ministry of Pollution Comb ...

"A Story from the Dunes"
by H. C. Andersen

– A modern illustration of the appearance of the Sand-Covered Church circa 1600 {{Skagen 14th-century churches in Denmark Churches in the North Jutland Region Church ruins in Denmark Former churches Ruins in Denmark Gothic architecture in Denmark Brick Gothic Buildings and structures in Skagen Former churches in Denmark Sand

Architecture

History

References

Further reading

External links