Væggerløse Church () is a Romanesque church in the village of Væggerløse, south of Nykøbing on the Danish island of

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

. Its early 16th century

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 depict the

Supper at Emmaus According to the Gospel of Luke, the road to Emmaus appearance is one of the early post-resurrection appearances of Jesus after his crucifixion and the discovery of the empty tomb. Both the meeting on the road to Emmaus and the subsequent supper ...

History

In the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

the church was dedicated to St Olaf. The

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 nave from the late Romanesque period were built in brick on a profiled plinth with pilaster strips on the corners. The chancel's pilaster strips now only remain on its southwest corner. Originally there was also an

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 ' ...

which was torn down but later replaced during the restoration work in 1861 by the Hamburg architect Ernst Heinrich Glüer. On that occasion, the south door was bricked up but the door frame remains. The tower is from the Late Gothic period."Væggerløse kirke"
, ''Nordens Kirker''. Retrieved 13 November 2012.

Interior

The chancel and the nave have a flat-beamed ceiling. The altarpiece painting of Christ Resurrected is by Heinrich Hoffman (1868). The pulpit from c. 1640 is the work of Jørgen Ringnis, similar to that in Aastrup Church. Its large shell-framed panels depict the

four evangelists In Christian tradition, the Four Evangelists are Matthew the Apostle, Matthew, Mark the Evangelist, Mark, Luke the Evangelist, Luke, and John the Evangelist, John, the authors attributed with the creation of the four canonical Gospel accounts ...

. The

Early Gothic Early Gothic is the term for the first period of Gothic architecture which lasted from about 1120 until about 1200. The early Gothic builders used innovative technologies to resolve the problem of masonry ceilings which were too heavy for the t ...

crucifix on the north wall of the nave, c. 175 cm high, is from the late 13th century.Kirsten Weber-Andersen, Otto Norn, Aage Roussell, Gertrud Købke Knudsen, "Vegerløse Kirke"
''Danmarks kirker: Maribo amt, Volume 8'', 1951, Nationalmuseet, pages 1345–1358. Retrieved 14 November 2012.

Frescos

In 1906, frescos from c. 1520 were discovered in the tower vault. Painted on a thin layer of whitewash, they were in poor condition. The south segment depicted the

Adoration of the Magi The Adoration of the Magi or Adoration of the Kings or Visitation of the Wise Men is the name traditionally given to the subject in the Nativity of Jesus in art in which the three Magi, represented as kings, especially in the West, having fo ...

, the fresco on the east segment could not be identified and that on the north side showed Christ's entry into Jerusalem followed by haloed apostles. The fresco on the west segment, depicting a lively scene of the

, was in good enough condition to be preserved. Christ sits with two distinguished gentlemen at a finely set table with bread and a spotted leg of venison. There are two servants, one carrying a bowl, the other pouring wine from a jug. The woman lying on the floor in the foreground is perhaps Mary Magdelene. The colours are grey, russet, ochre and green.

Gallery

File:Vaeggerlose08Skibet set mod øst.JPG, nave File:Vaeggerlose17Tårnrum østkappe, Middag i Emmaus (1).JPG, Supper at Emmaus File:Vaeggerlose18Tårnrum østkappe, Middag i Emmaus (2).JPG, Detail of table File:Vaeggerlose20Tårnrum østkappe, Middag i Emmaus (4).JPG, Servant with bowl File:Vaeggerlose19Tårnrum østkappe, Middag i Emmaus (3).JPG, Servant with wine

References

Bibliography

*Kirsten Weber-Andersen, Otto Norn, Aage Roussell, Gertrud Købke Knudsen, ''Danmarks kirker: Maribo amt'', Vol. 8, 1951, Nationalmuseet, pages 1345 to 1358.

External links

Væggerløse Kirke from Danmarks Kirker
with photos. {{DEFAULTSORT:Vaeggerlose Church frescos in Denmark Churches in Falster Romanesque church buildings Lutheran churches converted from Roman Catholicism Churches in the Diocese of Lolland–Falster