Bethlehem Church () is a church in the

Nørrebro Nørrebro (, ) is one of the 10 official districts of Copenhagen Municipality, Denmark. It is northwest of the city centre, beyond the location of the old Northern Gate (''Nørreport''), which, until dismantled in 1856, was near the current N ...

district of

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

, located on

Åboulevard Åboulevard () is a street in central Copenhagen, Denmark. Together with H. C. Andersens Boulevard in the city centre and Borups Allé, it forms a major artery in and out of the city. The road is built over Ladegårds Å, a canal originally bui ...

, close to Peblinge Lake and the municipal border with

Frederiksberg Frederiksberg () is a part of the Capital Region of Denmark. It is an independent municipality, Frederiksberg Municipality, separate from Copenhagen Municipality, but both are a part of the region of Copenhagen. It occupies an area of less tha ...

Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint (21 June 1853 – 1 December 1930) was a Danish architect, designer, painter and architectural theorist, best known for designing Grundtvig's Church in Copenhagen, generally considered to be one of the most import ...

made the first sketches for the church but after his death it was completed by his son,

Kaare Klint Kaare Klint (15 December 1888 – 28 March 1954) was a Danish architect and furniture designer, known as the father of modern Danish furniture design. His style was epitomized by clean, pure lines, use of the best materials of his time and ...

, and built from 1935 to 1937. Its style is remniscient of

Grundtvig's Church Grundtvig's Church () is located in the Bispebjerg district of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is a rare example of expressionist church architecture. Due to its originality, it is one of the best known churches in the city. History The commission fo ...

, Jensen Klint's most famous work, which was also completed posthumously by Kaare Klint, although on a much smaller scale.

History

Bethlehem Church is one of many churches in Copenhagen built by the Copenhagen Church Trust, founded in 1890 to collect money and build new churches in the rapidly growing Danish capital, and

was charged with the design. He had already designed Anna Church and the monumental

in Copenhagen as well as

Gedser Church Gedser Church lies in the town of Gedser on the southern tip of the Danish island of Falster. It is the church of Gedser Parish. Completed in 1915, it was designed by Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint, best known for designing Grundtvig's Church in Cop ...

on the island og

Falster Falster () is an island in south-eastern Denmark with an area of and 43,398 inhabitants as of 1 January 2010.

and St. Hans Tveje' Church in

Odense Odense ( , , ) is the third largest city in Denmark (after Copenhagen and Aarhus) and the largest city on the island of Funen. As of 1 January 2025, the city proper had a population of 185,480 while Odense Municipality had a population of 210, ...

. Jensen-Klint also designed a congregation house close by which was completed in 1931. After Jensen-Klint's death on 1 December 1930,

, his son, completed the design process based on his father's initial sketches. The church was built from 1935 to 1937 and consecrated on 13 February 1938 by the Bishop of Copenhagen.

Architecture

The church building is integrated in the row of houses and the facade toward the street is built in red brick. Its style is strongly remniscient of Jensen Klint's other churches with elements from

Gothic Revival architecture Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

and

Brick Expressionism The term Brick Expressionism () describes a specific variant of Expressionist architecture that uses bricks, tiles or clinker bricks as the main visible building material. Buildings in the style were erected mostly in the 1920s, primarily in Ge ...

Interior

The three nave church room is relatively short and therefore appears strikingly high. All inside walls are clad in yellow brickwork.

Furnishings

Kaare Klint designed all furnishings and fittings. All but the font are executed in light-coloured timber with a minimum of detail. The ciborium above the

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religion, religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, Church (building), churches, and other places of worship. They are use ...

is inspired by the altar in the

Church of the Nativity The Church of the Nativity, or Basilica of the Nativity, is a basilica located in Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestine. The grotto holds a prominent religious significance to Christianity, Christians of various denominations as the Nativity of Jesus, ...

Bethlehem Bethlehem is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, located about south of Jerusalem, and the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate. It had a population of people, as of . The city's economy is strongly linked to Tourism in the State of Palesti ...

. The canopy over the

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accesse ...

is decorated with a

Star of David The Star of David (, , ) is a symbol generally recognized as representing both Jewish identity and Judaism. Its shape is that of a hexagram: the compound of two equilateral triangles. A derivation of the Seal of Solomon was used for decora ...

. The church is the first church in Denmark to use individual chairs instead of benches. Designed specifically for the church, the chair later won great popularity, both for use in other churches and when it became commercially available for private homes.

References

External links