The St. Mary's Church is a church owned by the

Church of Denmark The Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Denmark or National Church ( , or unofficially ; ), sometimes called the Church of Denmark, is the established, state-supported church in Denmark. The supreme secular authority of the church is composed of ...

Sønderborg (; ) is a Denmark, Danish town in the Region of Southern Denmark. It is the main town and the administrative seat of Sønderborg Municipality (Kommune). The town has a population of 28,333 (1 January 2025),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 ...

and the church of the parish with the same name. Thanks to its location on a hill, the church building is very iconic for the city.

History

In the Middle Ages there was a

leper colony 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 ...

on a hill just outside the city. It was named after

Saint George Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the ...

and around 1300 the chapel of this leper colony stood in the place of the present St. Mary's Church. After the old parish church of the city, the St. Nicholas Church, was demolished around 1530, the Saint-George chapel became the new main church. Towards the end of the 16th century,

John II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg John the Younger (; ; 25 March 1545 – 9 October 1622) was the duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg. Biography John was born on 25 March 1545 at Koldinghus Castle in Jutland, Denmark as the fourth child and third son of King Christian III ...

commissioned the enlargement of the building in order to make it suitable for the function of the parish church of his city.

The current St. Mary's Church

In 1595 a start was made on the partial demolition of the old church and the construction of the new church. Only parts of the old medieval church remained. From the medieval church, a medieval wooden wall cupboard dating from about 1400 remained. The solemn inauguration of the new parish church took place just before Christmas in 1600. In 1649 the George Church was renamed as the Mary Church. The name of Saint George stayed in the Danish names ''Sankt Jørgensgade'' and ''Jørgensbjerg''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mary's Church Sonderborg Buildings and structures in Sønderborg Municipality Churches in the Region of Southern Denmark Churches in the diocese of Haderslev Sønderborg Tourist attractions in Sønderborg Municipality