Helsingor, Sancta Maria Klosterkirke (Mariakyrkan, St. Mary's Church, Carmelite Cloister)

Skt.. Mariae Klosterkirke
Mariakyrkan
Carmelites

Knock. The Door Opens.

Worship includes Box Seats in balconies, behind screens; 
and Commerce, Is That so? Who matters?


No different from now.

The Ships from the Rafters

Ske. Mariae Klosterkirka, or Saint Mary's Church, Mariakyrkan, and the Carmelite Cloister, Monastery of Our Lady

Wonderful. In Helsingborg, the Town where the Ferry Lands from Sweden.

Go here instead of Kronborg Castle, if you must choose.

 First, a fabulous little knocker, at the complex of Saint Mary's Church, Mariakyrkan, and the Carmelite Cloister in Helsingor, Denmark.   Helsingborg, similar name, is in Sweden, just a few miles across the water. Take a ferry.

Helsingor is the place of Elsinore, Kronborg Castle, that gets all the attention and has become rather tacky. Even the ticket-takers look and act weary.  Another tourist.  Oh, dear.  Must we bother.

We did Kronborg, as required, but prefer other parts of Denmark's history in this old town, so close to Sweden.   Here is our first encounter: a knocker. We have to look up the symbolism of the pop-eyed dolphin, with a little ersatz cherub without wings on the dolphin's back. The dolphin does not look happy.  A coercive, nasty cherub. Meanwhile, knock and enter.

Dolphin Knocker, St. Mary's, Helsingor DK. Sancta Maria Klosterkirke. Mariakyrkan.

Saint Mary's Church, and a Monastery, the Klosterkirka in Helsingor, Denmark.  Mariakyrkan

This is a Carmelite Monastery dating from the 1400's.  Carmelites:  a long history dating from the Crusades and Orders living in Palestine, of hermit-like monastics, but they live in a "shared solitude" see ://www.carmelites.net/tradition/history.html

Famous organist, composer, Buxtehude, at St. Mary's Church, buried in Helsingor, DK.  Ste. Maria, Klosterkirka. Mariakyrkan.

At the age of 20, Buxtehude became organist here at S. Maria. 

Door ornamentation, symbolism unknown. Sancta Maria Klosterkirka, Helsingor, DK.  Cloister church. Mariakyrkan

We need a compendium encyclopedia of symbols and patterns.  Doors are fabulous, but what do the shapes mean.

Entire door,orown symbols, Saint Mary's Helsingor DK; and Cloister.  Mariakyrkan.

The details are unfamiliar, but the grace is laudable. Look a that curved railing, with the monkey-tail ending.  We used to love sliding down big mahogany bannisters as kids with monkey-tail curlicues at the end to stop you, and here one is. Swoosh better than Nike.

Pulpit, Sancta Maria, Klosterkirka, Helsingor, DK.  

The interesting angle here is all the pregnant women.  There are the usual saints, and Matthew etc., but more interesting are the bulging bellies of the women representing various virtues.  Where to get information on that? Because this is St. Mary's and she was "enceinte"?

Ladies with child representing virtues; not just fashion bulges, to look at them. St. Mary's, Helsingor, DK  Mariakyrkan.

Don't nobody tell the Vatican that these are here.  Look between St. Luke, there and the next gospeler, and see the shapes.  That is real life.  We enlarged it here so you could see.  If you like, if it disturbs you, click on the picture and make it small.

Patience; a virtue represented by a cowering, even pregnant lady, St. Mary's, Helsingor, DK  Mariakyrkan.

The photo is fuzzed because we are not professional, but look there and see if youoree. That is not a noble, patience.  That is someone under stress.  Thank you, church, for putting her in that position.

Worship Boxes;  private rooms with their own windows to the church below, where the wealthy family could retire up the curved (also private) staircases, Sancta Maria, Klosterkirka, Helsingor, DK

.  Mariakyrkan.

Source of Wealth for the patrons, shipping. Hanging ships, St. Mary's, Cloister Church ,Helsingor, DK   Mariakyrkan.

In August of each year, Helsingor hosts the Baltic Sail, where ships anchor in the harbor, and there are booths and entertainment and -- is this like the Tall Ships in the US, where towns along old harbors, from NY to the smaller, have celebrations of old ships? 

Note the lovely spiral carved staircase leading to the private worship boxes.

Weathy patron worship box, St. Mary's Klosterkirka, Helsingor Denmark

Worship skyboxes. 

In Mariakyrkan, the pews are ornamented with upstanding scallop shells, long the symbol of pilgrims.  See ://seagrant.gso.uri.edu/factsheets/scallop.html/.  The Church is brick, as this is an area with out mountain rocks for building material. 

Back to use of female figures for the Virtues.  Do tell the Vatican.

Helsingor, St. Mary's Cloister Church, Frescoes, Burials, Carmelite Cloister;

St. Mary's
Carmelite Cloister Church
A Sistine of the North -- Medieval Frescoes

St. Mary's Carmelite Cloister Church, Helsingor DK; Skt Mariae Klosterkirke. Monastery of Our Lady. Cloister garden.

Ceiling frescoes:  Here, this fresco shows the Last Supper.  The Last Supper includes a boar's head on the platter.

Boar's head at the Last Supper, St. Mary's Cloister Church, Helsingor DK. Also other scenes:  flight into Egypt, Herod the baby-killer (no outside evidence for that?); a healing?


This specification of pork at the Last Supper will come as a surprise, probably especially to Avraham Ben David.  Yet, lack of awareness of Jewish dietary laws would not be unusual at that time in the context of Jews in Danish history. There were few Jews there at the time.  See FN 1

It is a boar there on the platter. There are the two lower incisor tusks.  No lamb, that.

Closeup. No mistaking.  That's a boar's head at the Last Supper. Skt Mariae, Carmelite Cloister Church Helsingor DK

The detail in the ceiling frescoes, fit in between the arches, is worth oversizing.  To reduce the enlargement, click on the picture.

,Frescoes, St. Mary's Cloister Church, Helsingor DK.  Judas and the kiss, sleeping disciples in the garden, cup pass from me, etc.

Turn your computer upside down to see them all. We like these better than Michelangelo's; who is the artist for this Sistine of the North?

Scourging, thorns, carrying the cross, crucifixion. Ceiling arch frescoes, Skt. Mariae, Klosterkirke, Helsingor DK, St. Mary's.

The frescoes date from 1400-1525.  See ://atasteofdenmark.blogspot.com/2010/05/elsinorehelsingr-and-kronborg.html

.Burial marker, floor,Frederick II but not the King (at Roskilde); St. Mary's Klosterkirke, Helsingor, DK.

This is not the Frederick II, he redid Kronborg Castle from a fortress to be his matrimonial home. See ://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Europe/Denmark/Frederiksborg_Amt/Helsingoer-163074/Things_To_Do-Helsingoer-TG-C-1.html/  Not fancy enough to be a King's burial place.  Have to check. who this one is.

,,

Organ view, Buxtehude's. St. Mary's Cloister Church, Helsingor DK

...........................................

FN 1.  Pork at the Last Supper.  Boar at the Last Supper. At a Jewish repast?  Easily understood:

The frescoes date from the 1400's to early and mid 1500's.  There may have been individual families or groups of Jews in Denmark at the time, but it was not until Christian IV established a formal connection with Jews, inviting Sephardic Jews to settle in Denmark to fill important roles there, and enjoy financial privileges.  They they were welcomed and prospered.  In 1605, a royal letter of protection issued as to the Jews. The Danes on their own were not competing well with other parts of Europe, especially mighty Hamburg,  in imports and exports, and many Jews of the time had superior educations and practical experience in finance and administration.  See The History of the Jews in Denmark at ://www.jewishgen.org/scandinavia/history.htm/.  Since "Christians" were forbidden to be "usurious" (charge interest), they simply passed on that area of commercial life to others; then later condemned Jews for doing it -- yet that was one of the only economic areas where a Jew could even earn a living in the broader community. 


Since then, usury is a big Christian business.  As to the Last Supper, we understand that wine and bread would be served between other courses, and would not be a "supper" in itself.  If boar is in Danish woods, and used for fine dinners, then boar it is.