Aarhus Cathedral/St. Clement

Facts

Denmark's longest church

The construction of Aarhus Cathedral began in the late 1100s, and was completed circa 1300 as a Romanesque-style brick basilica. In the second half of the 1400s, the height of the cathedral was raised to accommodate a new, spacious chancel. The cathedral is dedicated to St. Clement, in Denmark the patron saint of seamen. At 93 metres, it is Denmark's longest ecclestiastical building. Its 12-metre pentatych (a five-panelled altarpiece) is Denmark's largest medieval artistic treasure. It was created at the workshop of Bernt Notke in Lübeck and donated to the cathedral by Bishop Jens Iversen Lange in 1479.

Public place

Selected entry

Pentatych swindle?

Story written by Peter Pentz

Time / Periode 1100 1300

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In August 1482, Aarhus town council wrote to its counterpart in Lübeck (now Germany) confirming that payment had been made in full for the grand altarpiece. Its creator, Bernt Notke, had personally thanked the Bishop manually and orally" for handsome payment "for all that he had wrought". Notke had even given the Bishop a signed receipt for full settlement. A year later, the town council sent the same letter to Lübeck, this time adding that Notke had even received 20 guilders and a horse as a 'bonus'. Researchers wonder why the letter was sent twice, and have suggested that Notke was a swindler who tried to get the people of Aarhus to pay double for the pentatych. "