The scarce remains of wooden church buildings of the century. 11 ° testify to a system of ‘palisade’ construction, with dimensions varying from those of the small church in Hörning (length m. 9.3) to those of the building in Jelling, which was much larger than the later stone church. Few are the remains of stavkirke (Copenhagen, Nationalmus.), Such as eg. an axis from Hörning, which externally presents an animalistic interlacing decoration of the Urnes style, carved in relief, and internally painted plant motifs derived from Western Europe. 11 °, as for example. the first cathedral of Roskilde, a basilica with a western transept, which was probably the first monumental construction in Denmark; L’ the only Romanesque building preserved in this city is the Vor Frue Kirke (c. 1080), with a single nave layout. Cathedrals were erected in Lund and Dalby in the Scania region; of the latter, a basilica without a transept influenced by that of Hildesheim, the southern nave and aisle are preserved. In Aarhus, under the Vor Frue Kirke, the city’s ancient cathedral, the original crypt of the Romanesque building is preserved. In Asmild, near Viborg, there are remains of a small basilica which around 1100 was equipped with bell towers and a western apse, according to a rather rare typology in Denmark. A very well preserved abbey church, from the end of the century. 11 °, characterized by the presence of a two-story transept, is located in Veng, near Aarhus. The establishment of the autonomous diocese of Lund led to the construction in this city of a new large cathedral, consecrated in 1145; the church, a basilica with three naves with apse, choir, transept, crypt below and a facade with two towers, represents one of the fundamental monuments of Romanesque architecture in the Nordic countries. The richly decorated building reveals clear Lombard, Norman and Rhenish artistic influences; in fact, the stonecutters came from Lombardy, who gave life to an architectural decoration unique for its richness in Northern Europe. The apse, modified around 1160, is externally divided into three bands: the lower and the median are divided into blind arches, the upper is opened by a gallery of arches of clear Lombard-Rhenish derivation. ‘ origin of an intense architectural activity: during the century. 12 ° the great Romanesque cathedrals of Schleswig, Ribe and Viborg were erected, the first two built in granite and tuff, in the Lower Rhine style, the third, in granite, also influenced by Ribe. The cathedral of this city has a basilica plan with three naves not very developed in length, with a transept, dome and a deep apse; the façade was probably designed with a three-towered system with a gallery.
Of the cathedral of Viborg (mid-12th century) – the largest Romanesque building in granite of the Denmark, erected on a three-nave plan according to the model of Ribe – only the crypt remains today, while the rest of the architecture is the result of a reconstruction that took place between 1864 and 1876. At the same time as the construction of the large Romanesque cathedrals in soft stone, we must remember the rural churches, preserved in large numbers, built in tuff, characterized by a ‘hall’ type and, in Scania and Sjaelland, equipped with towers on the façade. small group of churches with a central plan: the church of Store Heddinge, altered by restorations, has an octagonal plan and a choir with a complex and articulated structure with an upper floor. There are also some small churches with a circular plan, in some cases on two levels, linked to aristocratic environments and influenced by Bohemian, Moravian and Polish models; those of Bjernede are preserved on the island of Sjaelland, where there are numerous examples of this typology, of Thorsager in Jutland, of Horne in island of Funen and Valleberga in Scania, where among other things the four circular churches of Bornholm on two or three levels are a rare typology, due to the accentuated defensive character. the use of brick, which was used, around 1160, to begin the construction of the Cistercian abbey church of Sorö and the Benedictine church of Ringsted in Sjaelland; the brick-making technique was imported from Lombardy, while the architecture rather revealed French ancestry.
In the following years a series of late Romanesque churches in brick was erected in the so-called Sjaelland style. The abbey church of Sorö, a monastery founded in 1162, has a Bernardine-type layout, according to the Fontenay scheme; L’ the only fully preserved Cistercian church is that of Lögum (Jutland). Around 1170 the construction of the new cathedral of Roskilde began, a late Romanesque brick building, with strong influences of the early Gothic of northern France and in particular of the cathedral of Arras; the church, with three naves with a short tripartite transept, has an apse with an ambulatory. Roskilde’s early Gothic features, however, did not have immediate results; the middle of the thirteenth century was marked by the so-called transition style, in which slender windows with slightly ogival arches were placed next to groups of two or three; this architectural phase is attested by the churches of the Mendicant Orders, for example. those of the Dominicans in Aarhus and Viborg and the Franciscan one in Ystad (Scania). Only at the end of the thirteenth century the Gothic characters were established and to this phase belongs the reconstruction of the cathedral of Odense, datable, on the basis of an inscription, to 1301: the brick building is contemporary to the most ancient examples of Gothic architecture in terracotta of the Northern Germany, however presenting peculiar characters, linked to English or, more likely, Flemish architecture. In the major Danish cities, during the century. 14 °, the convent complexes of the main orders were erected together with large religious buildings such as the Vor Frue in Copenhagen – totally rebuilt in 1811 – in a style closely linked to the brick Gothic of the Baltic cities of northern Germany (e.g. the Marienkirche in Lübeck). The churches with a basilica layout have an ambulatory with five three-sided chapels and short transepts with two naves. wall, and from the castle of Hammershus (end of the 12th century) of the archbishop of Lund, on the island of Bornholm. Nyborg Castle (Funen), founded in 1170 and considered one of the most important historical sites of the Denmark (the first constitutional charter was drawn up here in 1282), retains part of the original structure, subsequently altered by extensions and destruction. private structures only the episcopal residences still have the original characters of medieval civil architecture, such as for example.
