Trinity Church () is a

church building A church, church building, church house, or chapel is a building used for Christian worship services and Christian activities. The earliest identified Christian church is a house church founded between 233 AD and 256 AD. ''Church'' is also ...

Kristianstad Kristianstad ( , ) is a Urban areas in Sweden, city and the seat of Kristianstad Municipality, Scania County, Sweden with 41,198 inhabitants in 2023. Since the 1990s, the city has gone from being a garrison town to a developed commercial city, ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, built between 1617 and 1628 by

Christian IV of Denmark Christian IV (12 April 1577 – 28 February 1648) was King of Denmark and King of Norway, Norway and List of rulers of Schleswig-Holstein, Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 until his death in 1648. His reign of 59 years and 330 days is th ...

. He had founded the city of Kristianstad in 1614 at a time when

Scania Scania ( ), also known by its native name of Skåne (), is the southernmost of the historical provinces of Sweden, provinces () of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous w ...

was part of the

Kingdom of Denmark The Danish Realm, officially the Kingdom of Denmark, or simply Denmark, is a sovereign state consisting of a collection of constituent territories united by the Constitution of Denmark, Constitutional Act, which applies to the entire territor ...

. The church's large size and style reveal the king's ambitions for his new city.

Architecture

Lorenz van Steenwinckel Lorenz van Steenwinckel (1585–1619) was a Flemish-Danish architect and sculptor, son of Hans van Steenwinckel the Elder and brother of Hans van Steenwinckel the Younger. From 1613, he was responsible for numerous projects commissioned by Christi ...

, the grand building is widely considered by many to be

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

's finest

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

church. Its extensive nave is able to accommodate congregations of up to 1,400. Like many Danish churches of the times, it is built of red brick. But this church is decorated with many sandstone statues and ornaments, including several monograms of Christian IV, testifying to his involvement. The well-preserved interior is decked with star-shaped cross vaults, supported by pillars of granite. Trinity Church has been little altered since it was built. The main addition is its 59-meter-tall tower constructed in 1865. The church is pleasantly and abundantly illuminated thanks to its 26 tall windows. The entrance through the western tower opens into a six-bay nave, with wide aisles, terminating in a projecting eastern sanctuary. The vaults are covered with a cross-gabled roof, with large ornamented gables on the north and south sides.

Furnishings and decorations

The pulpit, which is sculpted in Belgian and Italian marble, shows Christ and the four evangelists. The impressive canopy hanging above the pulpit weighs almost a ton. The Baroque organ case survives, including the case pipes, from German-born Johan Lorentz's 1630 organ, but the organ itself has been replaced. The present organ is used both for concerts and church services. The delicately carved benches are as old as the church itself.Tove's Walking Tour of Kristianstad.
Retrieved 20 December 2009.

Gallery

File:Trinity church, Kristianstad.jpg, Photograph from the south, c. 1900 File:Heliga Trefaldighetskyrkan interiör 1.jpg, Interior with chandalier File:Heliga Trefaldighetskyrkan orgeln.jpg, 1630 organ case with original pipes File:Heliga Trefaldighetskyrkan, portal.jpg, Main entrance through the tower

References

{{Churches in Scania Churches in Skåne County Churches in the Diocese of Lund 17th-century Church of Sweden church buildings Churches completed in 1628 17th-century establishments in Scania Kristianstad Brick buildings and structures in Sweden Renaissance church buildings Brick churches