Christiansfeld

by pastor and Ph.D. Jørgen Bøytler
South of Kolding lies the town of Christiansfeld, which is also known as “The town of the Brethren’s Congregation.” Christiansfeld is one of the first cities in Denmark that was first meticulously planned out and only thereafter, systematically constructed.

When you move into the old part of the town, you can see that all the houses are built of yellowish brick with red roofs and that nearly all the houses have two stories. Two parallel-running streets flanked by lime trees and a green plaza in front of the church constitute the center of this town.

Christiansfeld became the frame around the life and work of the Brethren’s Congregation. And the town was built up according to this Christian sect’s parochial structure and precepts. This Reformation movement had its source in fifteenth century Bohemia, as an attempt to square accounts with the Catholic Church. This can be seen in the town’s ground plan, in the cemetery’s simple design, where men and women are buried on opposite sides of the layout, and in the very specifically gender-segregated public houses that are called “Choir Houses.”

The town was also unusually well supplied with schools. There were private houses belonging to members of the congregation and then, of course, there is the large chapel, which is comparable to several cathedrals with respect to its size.

A town with a German Lutheran prototype
Christiansfeld was founded in 1773 on land that the Moravians or the Herrnhuters purchased from the king. The reigning king’s name was Christian. What could be more natural than naming the town after the king?

The Herrnhuters were skilled craftsmen and merchants. The Moravian United Brethren were an ecclesiastical community of people that came from Germany and were originally evangelists from Bohemia and Moravia.

The first Unitas Fratrum Church was founded in 1457, while the renewed and modern Moravian Church was founded in 1727. The leader’s name was Count Zinzendorf; he was a fiery soul who believed it was imperative that Christians live – and especially on the pure physical plane – according to their religious persuasions. This entailed that a special structure within the congregation was developed whereby families lived together while unmarried women and men lived in the Choir Houses.

Count Zinzendorf believed that it was most correct for Christians to live – and especially on the pure physical plane – according to their religious persuasions

So ein Ding
When cities like Christiansfeld were built in other countries like Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and England – and also in the United States, South Africa and the Caribbean – the architecture was coupled with aesthetics and religion. Zinzendorf’s vision was that all people should enjoy the opportunity of hearing the Christian gospel, so missionaries were dispatched to the world’s most remote places with the consequence that Christiansfeld became known around the world.

Count Zinzendorf visited Denmark in 1731. His visit led directly to the founding of a “Society of Brethren” in Copenhagen. The congregation subsequently felt a need to put up a “colony” in Denmark. Since King Christian VII, in 1766, together with his physician-in-ordinary, J.F. Struensee, had previously visited the Brethren’s Congregational city of Zeist in the Netherlands and witnessed how that city’s overall design was based on industry and crafts, they had already thought, “Such a city we must have in Denmark.” Christiansfeld might be the best preserved of all the Brethren’s Congregational cities throughout the world.

From cosmos to chaos
Today, the town makes its appearance as one consistent total entity: with the square in front of the church and the church itself, the physical manifestation of the congregation’s systematic ordering, as the point of origin for its faith, its religion and its spirit.

In the amalgamation of everyday life with spiritual life, what is engendered is the cosmos that the town and the congregation’s life constitute. The town’s center is the church square. Eventually, as our gaze begins to wander off, we catch sight of the nature and finally of the forested area off in the distance.

This urban planning is supposed to reflect life’s completeness and the span from culture to nature and from cosmos to chaos. Within the congregation, moreover, there was and there still is a strong sense of group identity. This was a bearing factor in the planning and the construction of the town. Everywhere in the Brethren’s Congregation, the women are called “sisters” and the men are called “brothers.”

Count Zinzendorf was convinced early on that Christianity’s crucial focus ought to be the crucified Jesus Christ. Christ is the Lord of the congregation. What better way to render this visible than to build a town where Christ is clearly the town’s topmost figure, in much the manner that he is the head of the congregation?

Dating at Church Square
In Christiansfeld, The Sisters’ House and The Widows’ House are located on the north side of the town, while The Brothers’ House is placed on the south side of town. In the past, the women and the sisters were placed on the church’s north side and the brothers were placed on the south side – a separation of the genders that is still in force today in Muslim mosques and Orthodox Jewish synagogues.

In the middle of the town lie the church and the square in front of the church. In the past, for a young unmarried brother, meeting with an unmarried sister was not such a simple matter. So the church square came to be considered an “innocent” place to meet.

The Moravian Brethren’s congregation was surprisingly progressive in several areas. We know, for example, that already very early on, during the renewal in 1722, room was made for women to serve on the governing council and that most of the senior posts were occupied by both a brother and a sister – a reasonably modern gender quota policy, when we take the date into consideration!

There is much to suggest that Count Zinzendorf was influenced by the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries’ mysticism. We can see that some of the utopian city’s features were developed in the Brethren Congregational cities. Utopia becomes reality in Christiansfeld. The town is built on the basis of people’s beliefs and upon considerations about the correlation between the visible and the invisible. The town is formidably visible and when you use your eyes and ears, maybe something invisible emerges and appears!

In the past, for a young unmarried brother, meeting with an unmarried sister was not such a simple matter. So the church square came to be considered an “innocent” place to meet

Craftwork and spiritual work
The Moravian Brethren’s Congregation built the town of Christiansfeld and created a place where handicraft traditions, aesthetics and fine architecture go hand in hand with a philosophy of life that is open to others and is characterized by a distinctly spiritual perspective. The tangible is telling about the intangible. The idea was transformed into reality. Still today, the idea is living and breathing in Christiansfeld.

Christiansfeld appears today almost as it was when the buildings were erected nearly 200 years ago and a large percentage of the houses are now listed buildings.