Gedser Church
Encyclopedia
Gedser Church lies in the town of Gedser
Gedser
Gedser is a town at the southern tip of the Danish island of Falster in the Guldborgsund Municipality in Sjælland region. It is the southernmost town in Denmark. The town has a population of 809...

 on the southern tip of the Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 island of Falster
Falster
Falster is an island in south-eastern Denmark with an area of 514 km² and 43,398 inhabitants as of 1 January 2010. Located in the Baltic sea, it is part of Region Sjælland and is administered by Guldborgsund Municipality...

. It is the church of Gedser Church District, part of Skelby Parish. Completed in 1915, it was designed by Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint
Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint
Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint was a Danish architect, designer, painter and architectural theorist, best known for designing Grundtvig's Church in Copenhagen, generally considered to be one of the most important Danish architectural works of the time...

, best known for designing Grundtvig's Church
Grundtvig's Church
Grundtvig's Church is located in the Bispebjerg district of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is a rare example of expressionist church architecture. Due to its unusual appearance, it is one of the best known churches in the city.- History :...

 in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

.

History

Over the centuries, the two parish churches of southern Falster had been located in Skelby and Gedeby. When Gedser grew to a community of 1,000 to 1,300 around the end of the 19th century, the need for a church became stronger. While visiting the town, the crown prince, later King Frederik VIII, is quoted as saying: "It is too far to Gedeby and it is good to hear God's word every once in a while."

In 1907, a church committee was set up and Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint
Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint
Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint was a Danish architect, designer, painter and architectural theorist, best known for designing Grundtvig's Church in Copenhagen, generally considered to be one of the most important Danish architectural works of the time...

 was commissioned to design the building. Despite a very tight budget, construction began in 1913 and the church was consecrated on Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday is a Christian moveable feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in all four Canonical Gospels. ....

 1915.

Legend has it that the day a church is completed in Gedser, the sea will wipe away the town. Somewhere or other, there is therefore a missing brick so that it can never be said that the church has been completed.

Architecture

With its yellow brickwork and vertical ornamentation resembling organ pipe
Organ pipe
An organ pipe is a sound-producing element of the pipe organ that resonates at a specific pitch when pressurized air is driven through it. Each pipe is tuned to a specific note of the musical scale...

s, the exterior bears similarities to Jensen-Klint's later and much more famous work, Grundtvig's Church
Grundtvig's Church
Grundtvig's Church is located in the Bispebjerg district of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is a rare example of expressionist church architecture. Due to its unusual appearance, it is one of the best known churches in the city.- History :...

 in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

. But this does not extend to the inside which is dominated by the imposing timber structure of the roof which looks like an inverted ship's hull, reflecting the town's nautical traditions as a port and important ferry terminal. The ribs work as supporting columns. The most striking ornamentation of the interior is the fresco in the demi-domal vault above the choir. When the church was completed, there were no funds for a painting but by 1924, public collections and gifts had provided the necessary means. On Jensen-Klint's recommendation, a still young Elof Riseby was charged with the assignment. The fresco is inspired by John 3:16
John 3:16
John 3:16 is one of the most widely quoted verses from the Christian Bible, and has been called the most famous Bible verse...

: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.
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