At 93 metres from west door to apse, Aarhus Cathedral is the longest church in Denmark, and its 96-metre tower makes it the tallest as well. Officially the church of St Clemens - patron saint of sailors, a fitting dedication for a building that originally stood almost on the beach of Aarhus Bay - it dominates Store Torv in the heart of the old town and serves as the mother church of the Diocese of Aarhus. Construction began in the 1190s under Bishop Peder Vognsen of the powerful Hvide family, on a spot where tradition says the local saint-prince Niels had been buried in a wooden chapel after his death in 1180. The first building, finished around 1300, was a Romanesque basilica in red brick - among the earliest brick buildings in Jutland. A catastrophic town fire in 1330 left the church derelict for over a century, and when rebuilding finally began in 1449 the Gothic style had arrived in Denmark. By about 1500 the transformation was complete: the nave had been stretched to its record length, star and cross vaults replaced the flat timber ceiling, and a new choir with thirteen tall pointed windows flooded the east end with light. In all, the building took more than 300 years to reach its present form. The interior holds two national treasures. The high altarpiece, carved in Bernt Notke's Lubeck workshop and dedicated at Easter 1479, is the largest of its kind in Denmark and unusually still has movable wings that are turned to show different scenes through the church year. Around it spreads the country's largest surviving area of medieval frescoes, uncovered from beneath post-Reformation whitewash, including a much-photographed St Clemens and a wealth of ships, saints and demons. A votive ship hangs in the nave in the old seafarers' tradition, and the church seats around a thousand people for services and the concerts it regularly hosts. The tower gained its current spire in the restoration completed in 1931, and the cathedral remains in daily use - free to enter outside services, and an obvious first stop for any visitor to Aarhus, with the Latin Quarter, the Viking Museum and Dokk1 all within a few minutes' walk.

Type: Tourist Attraction

Address: Store Torv, Aarhus, Denmark, 8000

Website: https://www.aarhusdomkirke.dk

Capacity: 1000

Opening Date: 01/01/1300