St. Nicolai Church () in

Vejle Vejle () is a city in Denmark, in the southeast of the Jutland Peninsula at the head of Vejle Fjord, where the Vejle River and Grejs River and their valleys converge. It is the site of the councils of Vejle Municipality (''Municipalities of De ...

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 ...

is a

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

church. The building is dating to the 13th century. Originally built in late

Romanesque style Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of medieval Europe that was predominant in the 11th and 12th centuries. The style eventually developed into the Gothic style with the shape of the arches providing a simple distinction: the Ro ...

and dedicated to the patron saint of merchants and seafarers, the church is the oldest building in the community.Hvass, Lone, ''Dronning Gunnhild'', Sesam, 1998, pg. 7 Renovations in the 15th century developed the church into a Gothic hall with two transepts and a tower 27.2 m (89 ft) high. On display in a glass-covered sarcophagus in the northern transept are the remains of the

Haraldskær Woman The Haraldskær Woman (or Haraldskjaer Woman) is the name given to a bog body of a woman preserved in a bog in Jutland, Denmark, and dating from about 490 BC (pre-Roman Iron Age). Workers found the body in 1835 while excavating peat on the Harald ...

, one of the best conserved of the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

bog bodies. The southern transept houses the sarcophagi of Kai de la Mare and his wife. The exterior brick wall of the north transept has an interesting feature of 23 spherical indentations approximately 15 cm (6 inches) in diameter, which hold the skulls of 23 robbers who were caught and beheaded in the nearby Nørreskov forest. In front of the church stands a sculpture of the priest

Anders Sørensen Vedel Anders Sørensen Vedel (9 November 1542 – 13 February 1616) At 14 years old, he moved to study in Ribe, and after finishing his education he moved on to Copenhagen University in 1561. In 1562, he was the tutor of astronomer Tycho Brahe on Brahe' ...

. The church was seriously damaged during the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

by the troops of

Wallenstein Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius von Wallenstein, Duke of Friedland (; 24 September 1583 – 25 February 1634), also von Waldstein (), was a Bohemian military leader and statesman who fought on the Catholic side during the Thirty Years' War (1618–16 ...

. Since that time it has undergone several major restorations: in 1744, 1855–56, 1887–88 and 1964–66.

References

{{Authority control Gothic architecture in Denmark Churches in the Region of Southern Denmark Lutheran churches converted from Roman Catholicism Churches in the diocese of Haderslev Vejle Tourist attractions in Vejle Municipality