St. Bendt’s Church: Denmark’s Royal Landmark

In this installment of ‘Larger Than Life: Architecture Through the Ages,’ we visit the church that honors Denmark’s early monarchs.

St. Bendt’s Church is a display of classic Romanesque architecture and a proud symbol of Danish identity. The statue of Valdemar the Great, the Danish king who commissioned the church, stands in front of the church, as a tribute to his father, and one of Denmark’s most illustrious medieval monarchs. Thomas Boege/Shutterstock

St. Bendt’s church in Ringsted, Denmark, is Scandinavia’s oldest brick church and Denmark’s first royal church. In 1170, King Valdemar I of Denmark commissioned a church to be built as a sepulcher and shrine for his father, St. Canute.

The church originally formed the northern wing of a Benedictine monastery. The church was built as a separate structure in the Lombard style, a form of early Romanesque architecture from northern Italy.