The Church of Our Saviour () is a parish church in

Esbjerg Esbjerg (, ) is a seaport city and seat of Esbjerg Municipality on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in southwest Denmark. By road, it is west of Kolding and southwest of Aarhus. With an urban area, urban population of 71,554 (1 January ...

, Denmark. Completed in 1887 to a design by Axel Møller, it was the first church to be built in the rapidly growing new town.

History

When Esbjerg was first developed in the late 1860s, the nearest church was in Jerne to the east. A committee set up in 1885 called for a new church to be built in the centre of Esbjerg as soon as possible. The government responded in 1886, granting half the necessary funding, the remainder being provided by Ribe Diocese. Construction began in May 1887 and the church was consecrated on 18 December the same year. In late 1990, the church became a parish in its own right. The first priest was installed in March 1891.

Architecture

Located on the corner of Skolegade and Kirkegade, the church is a typical Neoromantic building in red brick with belts of grey stone on a granite socle. It originally consisted of a

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 a

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

and

apse In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...

at the east end and an entrance through the tower to the west. Møller expanded the building in 1896 with

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform ("cross-shaped") cruciform plan, churches, in particular within the Romanesque architecture, Romanesque a ...

s to the north and south fitted with galleries, doubling the seating capacity from 400 to 800. The outer walls are decorated with

lesene A lesene, also called a pilaster strip, is an architectural term for a narrow, low-relief vertical pillar on a wall. It resembles a pilaster, but does not have a base or capital. It is typical in Lombardic and Rijnlandish architectural building ...

s, round-arched friezes and a toothed

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

. The roof is slated, including the roof on the pyramid-shaped spire.

Interior

In 1929, the church was decorated with

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

s by

Ole Søndergaard Ole Laurits Olsen Søndergaard (24 May 1876 – 10 November 1958) was a Danish landscape painter. He also decorated a number of Danish churches with paintings and frescos. Biography Born in Allerslev near Lejre in northwestern Zealand, Sønderg ...

: the

Paschal Lamb Paschal Lamb may refer to: * Passover sacrifice (''Korban Pesach''), a Jewish animal sacrifice * Lamb of God, a title for Jesus in Christianity * Paschal lamb (heraldry), a charge used in heraldry See also *Sacrificial lamb A sacrificial lamb ...

on the apse vault, Jesus blessing the children on the north wall, the Return of the Prodigal Son on the south wall and the

Crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the condemned is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross, beam or stake and left to hang until eventual death. It was used as a punishment by the Achaemenid Empire, Persians, Ancient Carthag ...

on the chancel arch with groups of people on either side. The large

Emmaus Emmaus ( ; ; ; ) is a town mentioned in the Gospel of Luke of the New Testament. Luke reports that Jesus appeared, after his death and resurrection, before two of his disciples while they were walking on the road to Emmaus. Although its geograp ...

painting on the

altarpiece An altarpiece is a painting or sculpture, including relief, of religious subject matter 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 or sculpture, ...

is also the work of Søndergaard. The granite font is an old Romanesque piece which was found in the rectory garden in Jerne. The bowl is decorated with a relief with small triangular heads. There is a finely carved wooden pulpit with a canopy.

I.C. Møller park

The church's former cemetery was converted into I.C. Møllerparken in 2013.

References

Literature

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External links

Vor Frelser Kirke, Esbjerg, website
{{Esbjerg Churches in Esbjerg Municipality Churches completed in 1887 Churches in the diocese of Ribe