Capitals of the Northlands: Tales of Ten CitiesHannah, Ian C.
History
Capitals of the Northlands: Tales of Ten Cities
Hannah, Ian C.
Capitals (Cities); Russia -- Description and travel; Scandinavia -- Description and travel
[55] The earliest that exists was built in 1384 by Bishop Ulfeld, who
hallowed it to St. Laurence; the vaulting springs from little grotesque
heads, and there are some beautiful wall paintings. In fact, many
such have survived throughout the cathedral. Joining it on the west
is another little square chapel, erected 1464, hallowed to St. Brita
(p. 195). Here is some really beautiful old woodwork, and one of the
wall paintings shows us a green devil writing. Westward it joins the
north porch. Touching the south porch on the other side of the nave
is the large chapel to the Three Holy Kings, erected 1459-64. A much
older granite shaft with details of Byzantine character stands in the
centre to support the vault which elsewhere rests on ancient corbels.
Foliage and figure paintings cover vault and walls, and there are two
sumptuous Classic Renaissance monuments to Christian III. (1533-59)
and Frederic II. (1559-88). The former was chiefly responsible for the
Danish Reformation, but neither king has so large a place in history as
the columned canopies and numerous figures of their marble monuments
might seem to imply. On the north side of the church Christian IV.
(p. 132) built a fair chapel with star vaulting (whose character is
indicated on the plan), resembling that of one bay in the sacristy. It
is an interesting specimen of Gothic, dated 1615, the iron grill screen
1620, and the light streams in through two large four-fold windows,
whose tracery is formed by the mullions intersecting, a common form in
English work of that day, which is found also in a few of the oldest
churches of Virginia. These are the only windows in the cathedral that
are not single lights except the double ones in the upper stages of the
western towers, which are later than the lower parts. The tall taper
spires, copper-sheathed and nearly round, were added by the same king;
they are a distinct improvement on those of the cathedral at Lübeck,
which they rather resemble, and an ornament to the whole countryside.
The great Chapel of Frederick V. (1746-66) is cross-shaped with a huge
dome rising above; there are pilasters against the walls, and two
columns (all with Ionic caps) separate it from the wide vestibule which
joins the church. It is lighted from high up, and is a very fine thing
in itself, though hopelessly out of keeping with the cathedral. (It was
built after the death of the king whose name it bears, p. 135.)
[56] _Rural Denmark and Its Lessons._ 1911.
[57] This is at Lyngby, about seven miles from Copenhagen. Near the
museum are the Agricultural College and an experimental farm.
[58] The Danish West Indies are St. Thomas, St. John and Santa Cruz,
just east of Porto Rico. No country in the Polar regions extends much
further north than Greenland.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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