Brahetrolleborg Church

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Manor from Heaven

By Jakob Tue Christensen, Cand.mag. i middelalderarkæologi og historie (1 story)

Brahetrolleborg Church on South Funen doesn't look like an average parish church. Tall and narrow, it dominates the entire estate. Together, the manor and church comprise Scandinavia's best preserved Cistercian abbey. The Cistercians emerged in the 12th century as a strict order from the French abbeys of Citeaux and Clairveaux. They lived according to the monastic vow pray and work" to achieve a spiritual unity with God. In the first 100 years, the monks founded more than 500 new abbeys in the most sparsely populated areas of Europe. When they weren't praying they were farming the land. The abbey called Insula Dei (God's Islet) was founded in the forests of South Funen in about 1172. It was taken over by the Crown in 1536 and became a manor. "

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Story written by Jakob Tue Christensen

Time / Periode 1172 1450

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Building abbeys was a lengthy business. It took over 200 years to finish Brahetrolleborg. The changing architectural ideals of the Middle Ages are therefore reflected in the buildings. The east gable of the church is from about 1250 with Romanesque arched windows, but after building work stopped, new builders were put to work and modern Gothic curves were added with pointed tops. When the church wall facing the cloisters was finished in about 1300, trends had already left the project behind. New shapes for windows and vaulting are introduced based on foreign inspiration. The monks reach a temporary compromise. They couldn't leave the abbey half built, after all. The church was finally finished in about 1450 after a less ambitious plan was devised without an aisle.