Denmark: Roskilde Domkirke

There is perhaps no more regal town than Roskilde, although most of its famous residents are dead. This is where Vikings still rule, where Queens and Kings lie in decorated rest, where you can discover ancient Danish civilizations dating back thousands of years.

Roskilde It’s an old town with arguably the most impressive Cathedral in the country, situated in a gorgeous spot overlooking a long fjord, a pristine Natural Park around 40km long dotted with ~30 small islands and islets. Central to Denmark & strategically located, it was once the country’s Capital and one of the most important cities of ancient times, an active trade center from Viking Times through the Middle Ages.

We didn’t see the whole town but we visited one amazing place on our first day on the way to Copenhagen, the Roskilde Domkirke, the cathedral in which many members of the Danish royal family are buried. Below are pictures from our two-hour marathon through Roskilde Cathedral.

The cathedral is located in Roskilde. Roskilde sits at the southern end of Roskilde Fjord smack dab in the center of Zealand, less than an hour west of Copenhagen. It was named the capital of Denmark in 960 by King Bluetooth who needed a more easterly seat of power after uniting Denmark and Norway.

The cathedral is one of the earliest in Scandinavia constructed of brick in the Gothic style. It was built sometime in the late 1100s around an existing travertine cathedral built on the royal estate of Harald Bluetooth. Church services were reinstated in the updated cathedral in 1225, though the building continued. Work on the towers was completed in 1405. Its gilded altarpiece, pictured at the top of this post, was commissioned for a church in Danzig, Germany. However, the altarpiece was confiscated as payment for the sound dues from a ship sailing through Øresund, the waterway controlled by Kronborg Castle.

Queen Margrethe I was the first monarch to be buried in Roskilde Domkirke in about 1413, a situation that caused quite a stir. She had been originally interred at Sorø Klosterkirke but her body was moved to Roskilde a year later. The monks of Sorø were furious because having a queen interred in your church was lucrative; fees were paid for each requiem mass, and those for a dead queen were requested regularly.

Below is the 600-year-old sarcophagus of Queen Margrethe I:

King Christian IV

Some of the royal sarcophagi are housed in separate chapels off the main sanctuary. Other graves are right on the floors of the apse and its flanks.

King Christian IV was the son of Frederick II and Sophie (the first royal couple to live in Kronborg Slot). He was also the uncle of England’s King Charles I. His chapel is decorated with intricate latticework and beautiful frescoes on the ceiling (above). Five sarcophagi stand in the Christian IV Chapel. In the photograph below, the sarcophagus in the foreground is that of Christian Prince-Elect (d. 1647), and behind that is the sarcophagus of his father, King Christian IV (d. 1648). In the photo below that one are the two golden sarcophagi of Sophie Amalie (d. 1685) in the foreground and King Frederik III (d. 1670), Christian IV’s other son.

Roskilde Cathedral has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1995. With its many unique royal chapels, the Cathedral reflects the changing European architectural history across 800 years and is an early Scandinavian Gothic cathedral built in bricks. A World Heritage site is a monument or place that has important significance in the history of mankind. Today more than 1000 sites are inscribed on the World Heritage List by UNESCO, including the Pyramids, the Great Wall of China, and the Grand Canyon.

Kings and queens laid to rest in Roskilde Cathedral
House of Gorm and House of Valdemar

• Harold Bluetooth (died in 987 at the latest). Ascribed to the Cathedral, but no archaeological trace.
• Sweyn Forkbeard (died 1014). Ascribed to the Cathedral, but no archaeological trace.
• Sweyn Estridsen (died 1074 or 1076).
• Margrete Estrid (1058-1093). Harald Hen’s queen.
• Margrete 1 (1353-1412).
• Christopher of Bavaria (1416-1448). Siting uncertain.
  

House of Oldenburg

• Christian 1 (1416-1481) and Dorothea (ca. 1430-1495).
• Christian 3 (1503-1559) and Dorothea (1511-1571).
• Frederik 2 (1534-1588) and Sophie (1557-1631).
• Christian 4 (1577-1648) and Anna Cathrine (1575-1612).
• Frederik 3 (1609-1670) and Sophie Amalie (1650-1685).
• Christian 5 (1646-1699) and Charlotte Amalie (1650-1714).
• Frederik 4 (1671-1730) and Louise (1667-1721) and Anna Sophie (1693-1743).
• Christian 6 1699-1746) and Sophie Magdalene (1700-1770).
• Frederik 5 (1723-1766) and Louise (1724-1751) and Juliane Marie (1729-1796).
• Christian 7 (1749-1808).
• Frederik 6 (1768-1839) and Marie Sophie Frederikke (1767-1852).
• Christian 8 (1786-1848) and Caroline Amalie (1796-1881).
• Frederik 7 (1808-1863).

The House of Glücksburg

• Christian 9 (1818-1906) and Louise (1817-1898).
• Frederik 8 (1843-1912) and Lovisa (1851-1926).
• Christian 10 (1870-1947) and Alexandrine (1879-1952).
• Frederik 9 (1899-1972) and Ingrid (1910-2000).