Christians kirke () is a

Rococo Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

in the

Christianshavn Christianshavn () is a neighbourhood in Copenhagen, Denmark. Part of the Indre By District, it is located on several artificial islands between the islands of Zealand and Amager and separated from the rest of the city centre by the Inner Harbour, ...

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 ...

. Designed by

Nicolai Eigtved Nicolai Eigtved (4 June 1701 – 7 June 1754), also known as Niels Eigtved, was a Denmark, Danish architect. He introduced and was the leading proponent of the French rococo or late baroque style in Danish architecture during the 1730s–1740s. ...

, it was built 1754–59. Formerly Frederiks tyske kirke (English: Frederiks German church), it was built by the German community as a church for their large community at Christianshavn, serving until the end of the 19th century. It then became a regular

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

for Christian's Parish within the Danish National Church. Its name is a reference to King

Christian IV Christian IV (12 April 1577 – 28 February 1648) was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 until his death in 1648. His reign of 59 years and 330 days is the longest in Scandinavian history. A member of the H ...

, who founded the Christianshavn district in 1611.

History

Origins

After

founded Christianshavn in 1617 as a town specially for merchants, a large community of German traders and craftsmen settled there. Although Christianshavn had been incorporated into Copenhagen prior to 1674, they did not attend St. Peter's Church like the rest of the city's German community but preferred to worship at the local Church of Our Saviour. This lasted until they finally asked King Christian VI for permission to build their own church. The King approved the plans and contributed with a lot, a former

saltern A saltern is an area or installation for making salt. Salterns include modern salt-making works (saltworks), as well as hypersaline waters that usually contain high concentrations of Halophile, halophilic microorganisms, primarily haloarchaea but ...

, located at the end of

Strandgade Strandgade () is one of the principal streets in the Christianshavn district of Copenhagen, Denmark. It runs along the full length of the neighbourhood, following the waterfront of the Inner Harbour, Copenhagen, Inner Harbour, from Christian's Ch ...

in the southern part of the neighbourhood. He also granted permission for a

lottery A lottery (or lotto) is a form of gambling that involves the drawing of numbers at random for a prize. Some governments outlaw lotteries, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find som ...

to be held to cover the project's financing; the finished church used to be colloquially known as the Lottery Church.

Construction phase

In return for his approval and donation of the lot, the king laid down very specific guidelines for the placement and design of the church building.

, the king's preferred architect at the time, was charged with the design of the new church but died in 1754, before construction started. His son-in-law, Royal Master Builder Georg David Anthon, was entrusted with supervising the construction of the church, which was completed in 1759. Anthon also designed the spire, an addition from 1769.

Frederick's German Church

The church was originally called Frederiks tyske kirke (English: ''Frederik's German church''), and served its original purpose as a church for the German

congregation Congregation may refer to: Religion *Church (congregation), a religious organization that meets in a particular location *Congregation (Roman Curia), an administrative body of the Catholic Church *Religious congregation, a type of religious instit ...

until it was dissolved in 1886.

Later history

In 1901 the name of the church was changed to the current Christians kirke to complement and avoid confusion with Frederiks kirke in

Frederiksstaden Frederiksstaden is a district in Copenhagen, Denmark. Constructed during the reign of Frederick V of Denmark, Frederick V in the second half of the 18th century, it is considered to be one of the most important rococo complexes in Europe and was in ...

on the other side of the harbour, as well as to commemorate Christian IV, the founder of the Christianshavn area. Since 1991 it has been a regular

for Christian's parish, which includes part of Christianshavn and

Slotsholmen Slotsholmen (English language, English: The Castle Islet) is an island in the harbour of Copenhagen, Denmark, and part of Copenhagen Indre By, Inner City. The name is taken from the successive castles and palaces located on the island since Absal ...

Architecture

The church has a

rectangular In Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is a rectilinear convex polygon or a quadrilateral with four right angles. It can also be defined as: an equiangular quadrilateral, since equiangular means that all of its angles are equal (360°/4 = 90 ...

layout, the nave occupying the space between the shorter rather than the longer sides of the rectangle, giving it exceptional width. Standing on a granite plinth, the church is a yellow brick (''Flensborg sten'') building with

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

finishing for the portal and tower. Ionic

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s decorate the portal and the round-arched windows are tall and slender. The tower stands 70 metres high. Designed by Eigtved's son-in-law D. G. Anthon, the

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spire ...

was added in 1769. The tower is positioned at the centre of the northern side which serves as the main facade. It stands 70 metres high.

Interior

The unusual interior of Christian's Church is reminiscent of a

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

. In addition to the benches on either side of the nave, three tiers of galleries complete with boxes rise the full height of the building on the northern, western and southern sides. They are all arranged to provide the congregation with an excellent view of the podium on the eastern side, which is reminiscent of a stage. It is dominated by the tall slender altarpiece, which consists not only of the altar table but also of the pulpit above it, and the organ at the very top. The ornate entrance, topped by the royal box, is opposite the altar and under the tower on the western side. The organ stands in the integrated altarpiece above a clock face in the medieval tradition. The original instrument was built in 1759 by the leading authority of the day, Hartvig Jochum Müller. In 1917, I. Starup built a new pneumatic instrument on Müllers facade, and in 1976 the church acquired today's organ designed by P.-G. Andersen.

The crypt

The church also has a large crypt covering the full area of the nave above. Divided into 48 burial chapels, it has been used for burials ever since the church's consecration in 1759 and is still in use today. The grave of Danish historian

Peter Frederik Suhm Peter Frederik Suhm (18 October 1728 – 7 September 1798), was a Danish historian. Biography Suhm studied at the University of Copenhagen from 1746 to 1751, and one of his teachers was Ludvig Holberg. In 1749 he translated a comedy of Plautu ...

is located there, alongside the graves of his wife and son. The rock and roll guitarist

Link Wray Fred Lincoln "Link" Wray Jr. (May 2, 1929 – November 5, 2005) was an American guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist who became popular in the late 1950s. His 1958 Instrumental rock, instrumental single "Rumble (instrumental), Rumble", reached the ...

was buried there in 2005.

Burials

Johan Friederich Wewer Johan Friederich Wewer (8 March 1699 – 9 May 1759) was a Danish merchant and ship-owner. He was a co-founder of Fabritius & Wewer and was also active in the Danish West India Company, Danish Asia Company, Danish Africa Company and the Royal Gre ...

(1699-1759), merchant and ship-owner (moved from

Church of Holmen The Holmen Church () is a Parish church in central Copenhagen in Denmark, on the street called Holmens Kanal. First built as an anchor forge in 1563, it was converted into a naval church by Christian IV. It is famous for having hosted the weddi ...

) * Johan Christian Just vong Berger (1723–1791), physician *

Vigilius Eriksen Vigilius Eriksen (2 September 1722 in Copenhagen – 25 May 1782 in Rungstedgård) was a Danish painter. He was the royal portraitist to Christian VI of Denmark. Biography He initially studied under Johann Salomon Wahl. In 1755 he was awa ...

(1722–1782), painter * Carl Emil Fenger (1814–1884), physician and politician * Carl Ludvig Carlach (1832–1893), composer, opera singer and educator *

Leocadie Gerlach Vilhelmine Leocadie Theresia Gerlach (née Bergnéhr; 26 January 1826 – 13 September 1919) was a Danish-Swedish mezzo-soprano opera singer who sang at the Royal Danish Theatre from 1845 to 1866. Considered to have been the country's most success ...

, (1826–1919), opera singer * Julie Hansen (1835–1895), actress * Peter Nicolai Heering (1838–1924), businessman * Jacob Holm (1770–1845), businessman * Simon Hooglant, (1712–1789), vice admiral * Knud Schroeder, (1977–1955), sculptor and professor *

Simon Carl Stanley Simon Carl Stanley known in England as Charles Stanley (12 December 1703 – 17 February 1761) was a Danish sculptor of English parentage. Life He was born in Copenhagen on 12 December 1703 to English parents. As a boy he liked drawing an ...

, (1703–1776), sculptor *

, (1728–1798), historian and collector * Cleophas Svenningsen, (1801–1853), educator *

Anker Sørensen Anker Sørensen (3 May 1926 – 19 August 2010) was a Danish film editor and director. He directed 18 films between 1949 and 1973. His 1960 film '' The Last Winter'' was entered into the 2nd Moscow International Film Festival. Selected film ...

, (1926–2010), filmmaker *

, (1929–2005), singer, songwriter and guitarist *

Johann Ludvig Zinn Johann Ludvig Zinn (14 September 1734 – 3 February 1802) was a German-Danish merchant who founded a trading house in Copenhagen in 1765 and died as one of the wealthiest men in the city. Zinn lived in the Zinn House at Kvæsthusgade 3 in Copenha ...

, (1734–1802), merchant *

Peter Ascanius Peter Ascanius (24 May 1723 – 4 June 1803) was a Norway, Norwegian-Denmark, Danish biologist and geologist. He was a professor of zoology and mineralogy. Early life and education He was born at Aure (village), Aure in Møre og Romsdal, Romsdal ...

(1723-1803), naturalist

The "Theatre Church"

As a result of its design, the church has often been called the Theatre Church. It has, however, lived up to its name as it can house up to a thousand people, not just for church services but for the many concerts and other artistic arrangements which have been held there in recent years. One of the advantages of its design is that it does not look empty even if only a few people attend such events.Kirkens historie. From Christians Kirke
. In Danish. Retrieved 25 January 2010.

Gallery

File:Christians Kirke Copenhagen 4.jpg, Main facade on the western side File:Christians Kirke Copenhagen altar pulpit organ.jpg, The altar topped by the pulpit and organ File:Christians Kirke Copenhagen kings chair.jpg, Entrance and royal box File:Christians Kirke Copenhagen crypt from entrance.jpg, The crypt

References

External links

Official web site

External links

Chruistians Kirke
in ''Danmarks kirker'' {{Christianshavn, Copenhagen 18th-century Church of Denmark churches Buildings and structures in Christianshavn Churches in the Diocese of Copenhagen German diaspora in Europe Lutheran churches in Copenhagen Rococo architecture in Copenhagen Tourist attractions in Copenhagen 1750s churches in Denmark