Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Maribo cathedral /Maribo domkirke, Musse herred, Maribo amt.


Maribo Cathedral

Interior

Altar piece

Pulpit

The dean has a conversation outside the cathedral

Maribo Cathedral was built as a klosterkirke for the Birgittines. Queen Margrethe I ordered a village Skimminge confiscated in favour of the new convent and monastery in 1408 - and a few years later the klosterkirke was built. Its placement by the lake (Maribo Søndersø) and it's architecture makes it one of the prettiest buildings in Denmark. In the late 1500s the klosterkirke became a parish church for the town Maribo.

The magnificent altar piece Mariatavlen which was in the church before the reformation is now in Engestofte church a few km east of Maribo (see Engestofte). The present Baroque altar piece is from 1641 and the Renaissance pulpit from 1606, the baptismal font is sandstone from 1777. The church has many epitaphs and a considerable collection of gravestones from the 1400s up to the 1600s. Famous is Chr. IV's daughter, Leonora Christine's grave stone.

West of and close to the cathedral are the ruins of the convent. It was very similar to the mother convent in Vadstena. The ruins of the more simple monastery south of the church are hidden under the dean's house.

photo 2003: grethe bachmann

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