Ribe Cathedral

Ribe Cathedral was begun in the 1100s of tufa stone shipped up the river from the Rhineland, and it sits low in the town because the streets have risen around it over eight centuries: you walk down a few steps to get in. The Cat's Head Door on the south side is one of the finest Romanesque portals in the north. Inside, the apse carries a bright modern cycle of mosaics, frescoes and windows by Carl-Henning Pedersen, an unusual pairing of twentieth century colour with Romanesque stone. The brick Citizens' Tower, built by the town rather than the church, can be climbed for a view over roofs and marsh.

History

Ribe is Denmark's oldest surviving town: it began as an open trading market on the Ribe River, sanctioned perhaps as early as 705, and in the Viking Age it was a busy international trading centre and a natural starting point for missionaries from Hamburg. The first church here was founded in 860 by the missionary Ansgar, a timber church built with the permission of King Horik I across the river from the market, and after the death of his successor St Rimbert in 888 the mission collapsed and the church was burned. Ribe became a diocese in 948 under its first bishop, Leofdag, who was revered locally as a saint until the Reformation. Bishop Thur began the first stone cathedral in 1110, and the building, damaged several times and repeatedly restored, extended and decorated, is the best-preserved Romanesque building in Denmark (Wikipedia, Ribe Cathedral).

Highlights

• The Cat's Head Door - the carved Romanesque portal on the south side.
• The Carl-Henning Pedersen apse - modern mosaics, frescoes and glass behind the altar.
• The Citizens' Tower - a couple of hundred steps up to the platform over the town.
• The tufa stonework - the pale volcanic stone brought by ship from the Rhineland.

When to go

Open most of the year but with shorter winter hours, and closed to visitors during services and concerts. Come on a clear day if you want the tower, since the view over the marsh towards the Wadden Sea is the point and haze flattens it. Mornings are the quietest hours.

Practical notes

The tower stair is narrow, steep and one way in places, and the platform is exposed and windy almost every day. The interior is plainer than the great Gothic cathedrals further south, and the modern apse divides opinion sharply. Entry is charged for a church that takes under an hour if you skip the climb.

Nearby

The old town lanes surround it, and the Viking Centre lies just south of Ribe.

Key facts