Svendborg Friary was a

Franciscan , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

friary in

Svendborg Svendborg () is a town on the island of Funen in south-central Denmark, and the seat of Svendborg Municipality. With a population of 27,300 (1 January 2022), Svendborg is Funen's second largest city.Funen Funen ( da, Fyn, ), with an area of , is the third-largest island of Denmark, after Zealand and Vendsyssel-Thy. It is the 165th-largest island in the world. It is located in the central part of the country and has a population of 469,947 as o ...

, in the present

Region of Southern Denmark The Region of Southern Denmark ( da, Region Syddanmark, ; german: Region Süddänemark, ; frr, Regiuun Syddanmark) is an administrative region of Denmark established on Monday 1 January 2007 as part of the 2007 Danish Municipal Reform, which ab ...

, and was one of the earliest Franciscan foundations in

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establishe ...

. Like almost all Danish religious houses it was dissolved during the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

of the 16th century.

History

The first Franciscan establishment in Svendborg was the chapel built in 1236. This building was destroyed when the town of Svendborg was burned to the ground by King

Abel of Denmark Abel Valdemarsen (1218 – 29 June 1252) was Duke of Schleswig from 1232 to 1252 and King of Denmark from 1250 until his death in 1252. He was the son of Valdemar II by his second wife, Berengaria of Portugal, and brother to kings Eric IV and Ch ...

in 1247 after a short siege. Another friary was built in about 1288 as the result of a gift of land for a chapel for the Franciscans from Herr Astrad Frakke, Herr Niels Bille (the brother of Bishop

Johannes Bille Johannes is a Medieval Latin form of the personal name that usually appears as " John" in English language contexts. It is a variant of the Greek and Classical Latin variants (Ιωάννης, '' Ioannes''), itself derived from the Hebrew name '' ...

), Herr Niels Beger and several other local nobles. Count

Gert of Holstein Gert is a mainly masculine given name ( short form of Gerrit, Gerard, etc.) with some female bearers (short for Gertrude). Since 1993 no one in Sweden has been baptised as Gert according to the Swedish Bureau of Census, so the name is becomin ...

and his son also made gifts of properties to support the Franciscan friars in Svendborg. In 1268 Lady Gro Gunnarsdatter Vint, the extremely wealthy widow of Esbjørn Vognsen, gave away her considerable fortune to abbeys, priories and friaries throughout Denmark when she joined the

Poor Clares The Poor Clares, officially the Order of Saint Clare ( la, Ordo sanctae Clarae) – originally referred to as the Order of Poor Ladies, and later the Clarisses, the Minoresses, the Franciscan Clarist Order, and the Second Order of Saint Francis ...

Roskilde Roskilde ( , ) is a city west of Copenhagen on the Danish island of Zealand. With a population of 51,916 (), the city is a business and educational centre for the region and the 10th largest city in Denmark. It is governed by the administrative ...

. The "brothers' riars'chapel at Svendborg" is specifically mentioned in the list of her beneficiaries. The

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

church was completed in 1361 and was dedicated to Saint Catherine. Svendborg was burned by the Hanseatic Fleet in 1389, after which the friary was rebuilt yet again. During the 15th century it expanded considerably, and the buildings were extended several times. The main friary precinct of this period consisted of a rectangular enclosure containing a church, dormitory, refectory, and servants' quarters, as well as a cloister surrounding a central garden. The buildings were constructed from red brick, the most common building material at the time. The friary had a close connection with St. George's Chapel and Hospital just outside Svendborg, the last remaining medieval

leper hospital 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 Af ...

in Denmark. One of the most controversial times for the friary was in 1500 when Queen Christina, who was at that point in direct control of Svendborg, gave the whole of Bysen Street (''Bysenstræde'') to the Franciscans to use as accommodation for the town's poor and sick in their care. The mayor and the town council strongly disapproved of this action, which caused a severe rift between the town and the friary.

Dissolution

During the short civil war known as the

Count's Feud The Count's Feud ( da, Grevens Fejde), also called the Count's War, was a war of succession that raged in Denmark in 1534–36 and brought about the Reformation in Denmark. In the international context, it was part of the European wars of religi ...

(Danish:Grevens Fejde), Svenborg made the mistake of siding with Count Christoffer, acting for

Christian II of Denmark Christian II (1 July 1481 – 25 January 1559) was a Scandinavian monarch under the Kalmar Union who reigned as King of Denmark and Norway, from 1513 until 1523, and Sweden from 1520 until 1521. From 1513 to 1523, he was concurrently Du ...

. When

Christian III Christian III (12 August 1503 – 1 January 1559) reigned as King of Denmark from 1534 and King of Norway from 1537 until his death in 1559. During his reign, Christian formed close ties between the church and the crown. He established ...

's troops took Svenborg and the rest of Fynen in 1534, they pillaged the town and its churches. With the Lutherans now firmly in control of the town and country, the priory was permanently closed, though by the end of 1530 it had been abandoned by the Franciscans. The last guardian of the priory, Hans Gaas, quickly accepted the and became the first Lutheran pastor of Our Lady's Church (Danish:Vor Frue Kirke) in Svendborg. The priory was taken over by the town. The friars went to other Franciscan houses outside Denmark or returned to secular life. The friary church became a parish church for the people of Svendborg. The east wing was demolished shortly after the Reformation. The west wing of the priory was converted into a Latin school which operated until 1740. The buildings where the Latin School had been located were torn down in 1875. In 1586 the north wing of the friary was turned into a hospital founded by Lady Helvig Hardenberg. The old hospital was torn down in 1870.

After dissolution

By 1828 the former friary church had fallen into serious disrepair and the town council decided to demolish it. The buildings were blown up, the ground levelled and the site in the town centre redeveloped with houses and shops: some buildings used parts of the old friary walls as foundations. The churchyard containing thousands of common and noble graves was cleared and the most recently buried bodies transferred to a cemetery a few streets away. The

altarpiece An altarpiece is an artwork such as a painting, sculpture or relief representing a religious subject made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting ...

however was preserved and is now located in

Thurø Thurø is a small Danish island in the south-east of Funen and belongs to the Svendborg municipality. Thurø is part of the South Funen Archipelago, comprising c. 55 islands altogether. The island had 3,555 inhabitants . Connected to Svendborg ...

Church. Recent excavations by Svendborg Museum have revealed that the later friary complex was much larger than was previously thought, and contained many structures in addition to the old rectangular layout.

Sources

*
Svendborg Klosterkirke
{{coord missing, Denmark 1236 establishments in Europe 1288 establishments in Europe 1361 establishments in Europe 1530 disestablishments 1828 disestablishments 1870 disestablishments in Denmark 1875 disestablishments Excavations Franciscan monasteries in Denmark Funen Monasteries dissolved under the Danish Reformation