St Martin's Church, Næstved, Denmark

St Martin's Church (Sankt Mortens Kirke) is one of the city's medieval churches. Known from records since approximately 1280, it is believed to have been built and put into service around 1200. The building was constructed as the city's parish church. It is dedicated to St Martin of Tours considered its patron saint.

The church is a Gothic structure built with bricks. The oldest parts of the church are from the 1220s. The tower was added in the 15th century but the baptismal chapel and the porch were completed as late as the 1850s.

The arches bear a portrait of St Martin. There are many frescoes of the period; one depicts him as a soldier sitting on his horse, while he cuts a piece of his officer cap and gives it to a beggar. The church's first organ, installed in 1587, was made by Hans Brebus (d. 1603), a Flemish organ builder who practiced in Denmark and Sweden. The altarpiece (1667) of 6m height is decorated with figures wearing grotesque masks or with mustaches, some of whom are stooping low) and is attributed to thewoodcarver Abel Schrøder (1602-1676) who was also the church's organist for forty-two years. Today's Frobenius organ dates to 1975. The pulpit was built by Abel Schrøder's father.

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User Reviews

Hanne Risager (2 years ago)
The church is nice, but the sound from the priest's microphone .... oops. When you have a wheelchair user with you, parking and the entrance to the church are poor. One sign, 3 places, it did not appear that all places were handicapped, so it cost just DKK 1020 on Saturday at 2.05 pm to Næstved municipality. Handicap toilet?????

Charlotte Haufort Hansen (3 years ago)
Very nice church, but incredibly bad sound during the concert, something must have gone wrong when the choir was renovated, as it was good before

Ole Gaarde Kristensen (3 years ago)
Classical church (and it's fine) nicely located in the middle of the city.

Albert Østerlyng (3 years ago)
hi.i have a question.how similar to your main organ ?.

Tom Christensen (4 years ago)
Just a good place to go if you need time to think a little about things when life hurts ?

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Visby Cathedral (also known as St. Mary’s Church) is the only survived medieval church in Visby. It was originally built for German merchants and inaugurated in 1225. Around the year 1350 the church was enlarged and converted into a basilica. The two-storey magazine was also added then above the nave as a warehouse for merchants.

Following the Reformation, the church was transformed into a parish church for the town of Visby. All other churches were abandoned. Shortly after the Reformation, in 1572, Gotland was made into its own Diocese, and the church designated its cathedral.

There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor.

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