Church exterior

The choir

Approaching the church from Nørregade, you pass close by the church's chancel gable to the east. It has a high pointed-arched window in a strongly profiled brick frame. The gable wall is also decorated with patterns of specially shaped bricks and apertures at the top.
The walls of the chancel are adorned on both the south and north sides with yellow horizontal brick bands of great decorative effect on the large surfaces of red monk stone.

South side of the church

After the three pointed-arched windows with stained glass windows in the chancel, you reach three large extensions consisting of the southern transept at the front and then two chapels, which together form the church's southern nave. There are also three Gothic windows and a side entrance similar to the entrance on the north side in the northern transept.

In the rear buttress facing Odense Castle, a wooden shutter covers an opening with an internal access road, called the ‘external pulpit’. Perhaps this is where medieval lepers and outlaws, who were banned from attending church services, were preached to, or relics may have been displayed on feast days such as St Hans Day.

During the Occupation, the church's two priests used the outside pulpit for a number of devotional services in the summer, while the audience sat on benches in the square in front and the soft tones of the organ accompanied the hymn singing.

North side of the church

We are now on the north side of the church called Sankt Hans Plads. The cemetery was located here until 1811, when the new Assistant Cemetery at Falen was built to replace the old cemeteries in the centre of the city.

Like the south side, the north side of the church is dominated by two chapels built together with the northern transept so that they form the interior of the north aisle. At the far end towards Nørregade is a small building that serves as a sacristy.

On the north side of the chancel is a large map with equal length cross arms embedded in the striped wall surface. A smaller cross set in a circle can be seen on the gable of the chapel next to the northern transept.

The four straight cross arms are split at the ends, a sure sign of the church's original connection with the Johnite monastery, as this sign was the order's coat of arms.

Furthermore, a walled coat of arms with a seven-pointed star can be seen on the gable of the chapel closest to the tower as a reminder of the Gyldenstjerne noble family who, like other great noble families, built the burial chapels that have been converted into the side aisles of the church over the course of time.

The nobles' burials in the individual family chapels may have been preceded by a stay in the monastery, which, in exchange for money or earthly goods, provided the family's sick and elderly with care and attention in their final years. Medieval nobles were given large and richly decorated tombstones, of which St Hans Church houses a unique collection. From their original place in the floor, today they are placed inside along the walls.

The church tower

The church tower doesn't look like much in height. At the top of the tower are three bells, one of which, according to the inscription, was cast in 1496, which is probably the year the tower was built. It should also be noted that the tower is connected to Odense Castle, which was originally built as a Johanite monastery. The construction previously allowed direct access to the church from the castle.

Den spanske officers grav

Close to Sankt Hans Church, in the square between the church, the castle, the vicarage and Marie Jørgensen's School, there is a tombstone in light grey limestone. The gravestone, which has no visible inscription, has been moved a few metres. But what is the story behind the gravestone?

After the British bombardment of Copenhagen in 1807, Denmark was forced into an alliance with the French Emperor Napoleon, and in 1808 large units of French and Spanish auxiliary troops arrived in Odense. The many soldiers filled the city and turned everything upside down.

The soldiers were accommodated wherever possible. Gråbrødre Hospital was cleared to make room for a hospital for the French, and vacant buildings in Odense Tugthus were used as a Spanish hospital. The Poor Farm and School, Lahn's Foundation, the Shoemakers' Low House, the Comedy House and the Civic Club also came into play, and guests also moved into ordinary people's homes.

The foreign soldiers made a big impression. H.C. Andersen writes in The Adventure of My Life: ‘I was no more than three years old at the time, but I still remember quite well the almost black-brown people making noise in the streets, the cannons being fired in the square and in front of the bishop's palace; I saw the foreign soldiers lying and stretching along the pavement and on bundles of straw inside the half-demolished Gråbrødre Church.’

Few people could speak to the strangers, but Fyens Stiftstidende advertised with Spanish and French phrase books, which could help spread understanding of the war.

Episodes has long been the subject of the dreadful events that took place under the German troops on Fyn - and the grave of St. John's Church can be seen as the site of a German under-officer who, after a slag battle with a large group of French soldiers, was killed in April 1808.

by Jørgen Thomsen and Johnny Wøllekær - Historiens Hus, Odense