Description of the attraction
The Church of St. Ibsus is located on a small hill between the Roskilde fjord and the historic city center. The church was built in the middle of the 12th century in a Romanesque architectural style.
Back in the 11th century, there was a small wooden chapel on this site, traces of which were found during archaeological excavations between 1980 and 1990. The modern building was built between 1100 and 1150, while the first documentary mention of the church of St. Ibs was only in 1291. The structure is made of calcareous tuff known as travertine. The narrow but long windows of the church were added in the 13th century, and the vaulted ceilings were also redesigned.
Previously, the building was complemented by a tower, but it, like many other decorations and decor items of the church, was destroyed in the 19th century. The church was closed in 1808, and during the Napoleonic wars, a hospital for Spanish soldiers was located here. After the war, the church of St. Ibs was acquired by a wealthy merchant who converted the former religious building into a warehouse, destroying everything except the walls and roof of the building.
Despite the fact that in 1884 the church was bought out by the city diocese, it was never consecrated anew and remains inactive. But at the beginning of the 20th century, a large-scale restoration of the premises was carried out, which ended in 1922. Then obsolete ceilings were replaced, but they lost their graceful vaults.
Unfortunately, all the interior decoration of the temple was lost after the Napoleonic wars. There is only a Romanesque baptismal font made of granite. In the second half of the 19th century, during the restoration, traces of ancient frescoes of the 13th century were discovered, but it is not yet possible to restore them. The sketches of the murals have been preserved in the form of watercolor drawings by Yakov Kornerup, the very archaeologist who discovered these frescoes.
