Inside the church
Take a look inside the church
Using Google Maps, it is possible to move around and explore the church space. Click on the HERE and enter the church (link opens in a new window)
The armoury
The church porch acts as an entrance to the church building itself.
Nevertheless, it is worth stopping to look at the wooden memorial plaque for the fairytale poet Hans Christian Andersen. Andersen. The plaque tells us that Hans Christian Andersen was baptised at home and brought to the church on Easter Sunday 1805 by his parents, journeyman shoemaker Hans Christian Andersen and Anne Marie Andersdatter.
On both sides of the entrance door to the church room are two man-sized tombstones, the right-hand one in particular is easy to read. Here you can read the not uncommon story that the heirs of the married couple Jørgen Schütz and Karen Poulsdatter forgot to have the date of their husband's death carved into the tombstone.
Centre nave
After the narrow porch, you enter the inner space of the church - and what a space!
Your gaze wanders forwards and upwards, mesmerised. As you make your way up through the nave, you have three beautifully crafted vaults above your head, which rightly take their name from the vault of heaven in the form of the star vault. They are supported by four heavy, octagonal pillars. In the two side naves, the vaults are lower and of the simpler cross vault type.
The Consecration Cross
Next to the pillar closest to the pulpit, the eye is caught by
a consecration cross with the date 22 February 1880 painted on it facing the aisle. This is the date of the church's rededication after extensive restoration in the years 1878-1880. The then Bishop of Funen, C.T. Engelstoft, gave the inauguration speech to a large crowd, which the newspapers at the time estimated at around 2000 people!
In connection with the church's restoration in 1998, the pillar on the south side was fitted with a new dedication cross and the inscription ‘1 February 1998’.
The choir
The chancel is covered by three cross vaults and is two steps higher than the floor of the rest of the church building, which can be seen as a sign of the chancel's special function during the service as the priest's area. In Catholic times, the chancel arch between the choir and nave was the boundary between the laity and the priests, marked by the large crucifix hanging in the chancel arch.
The crucifix in the choir
The man-sized crucifix on the north wall dates from the 15th century and was carved by an unknown artist. A distinctive feature of the cross is the dense, symmetrical decoration with stylised leaves growing out of the cross tree.
Baptism fund
Research has shown that the font is the oldest fixture in the church, but the original artistic character of the font was probably altered during a well-intentioned renovation in the last century, so that today the font has only a modest rope twisting as decoration. The font is equipped with a baptismal font in stain, which dates back to the restoration in 1878-80.
Epitaph in the choir
The term epitaph is used for a memorial plaque with carvings, images and inscriptions, usually placed on the wall inside the church. Today, only a few epitaphs are preserved in St Hans Church.
On the north wall of the chancel, next to the large crucifix, hangs a powerful stucco epitaph of the diocesan vicar Frederik Gedde (1641-1717) made in 1727 by the Italian Carlo Enrico Brenno. The person's high status at the time is reflected in his father's family coat of arms - a pike - and his mother's family coat of arms - a crowned boar's head (the Buchwald family's coat of arms).
Gedde only served for four years, from 1713 until his death in 1717, as the diocesan governor of Funen, residing at the castle next to the church.
Altarpiece and altar table
As soon as you enter the church room, you notice the altarpiece's large panel depicting Jesus in Gethsemane, created in 1879 by the painter Carl Bloch. Closer up, you realise that the large image has been inserted into an older altarpiece dating from the first part of the 18th century. All four evangelists tell of Jesus in Gethsemane, but Luke alone tells us that ‘an angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him’ while Jesus, abandoned by his loved ones, awaited his arrest.
The installation of the altarpiece's large image in 1879 was part of the extensive restoration of 1878-80 and was the result of a collection from the congregation, who wanted an old image of the Last Supper replaced with a painting by the greatest Danish artist of the time, Carl Bloch.
From the original altarpiece from the 18th-century Baroque period, the many decorative elements on the sides and top of the altarpiece have been preserved. Moses is shown with the tablets of the law with Roman numerals and to the right is Aaron the high priest, Moses' brother and the first high priest of the 12 tribes of Israel, fully dressed with 12 jewellery stones placed in the large buckle on his chest.
The altar table is dressed in a red velvet cloth, which was donated to the church by Frederik IV during the construction of the palace's main wing facing the King's Garden. The velvet cloth is decorated with the king's mirror monogram in silver embroidered relief and the year 1719 surrounded by palm branches.
The church silver
Most of the church silver dates from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, made by skilled contemporary silversmiths and donated to the church by members of the parish. During the service, there are two sets of altar candlesticks with lit candles on the altar table. The oldest is a set of ore candlesticks from the end of the 16th century. They are supplemented by a pair of silver candlesticks given in 1721. At communion, a chalice is used for the wine and for the bread a disc dating from the latter part of the 19th century, when the church served as a garrison church, which is evident from the inscription. The altar silver is precious and is only displayed on the altar table during the service.
The pulpit
The pulpit is believed to have been made by the sculptor Anders Mortensen, Odense, around 1650. His figures are carved with simple, distinctive features and the characters are dressed in costumes that were common in Anders Mortensen's own time.
The six sides of the pulpit are decorated with as many carved reliefs depicting scenes from the life of Jesus: The angel Gabriel announces the birth of Jesus to Mary - The shepherds worship the baby Jesus - Jesus is presented in the Temple - The Three Wise Men - Jesus as a 12-year-old in the Temple - Jesus is baptised in the Jordan River.
On the stairs leading up to the pulpit, the panel is decorated with reliefs of first the five unwise bridesmaids and then the five wise virgins carrying their oil lamps.
Money block by the choir stairs
A unique relic from the church's early days in the 1600s and 1700s is the almost one metre high money block on the north side of the short staircase. It consists of a square piece of oak wood containing three separate coin compartments hollowed out in the oak block. On a daily basis, only one coin slot is visible in the square iron plate that covers the top of the money block.
Below the iron plate is another iron plate with three coin slots labelled with the letters F, A and K. From here, coins can end up in three different compartments. The meaning of the letters is unknown today.
The money block is fitted with sturdy iron bands which, together with three oversized padlocks called bag locks, will deter most people from trying to break it open. Furthermore, the block is bolted to the wall.
The iron-clad money block has long since been replaced by two newer collection boxes near the door to the porch, but coins are still placed in it.
Church ships
The connection between Christian faith and the depiction of ships has been known since the early Church. The tradition of hanging church ships cannot be dated, and it is even unknown whether there were church ships in Catholic times.
Most church ships were hung to mark events in the church, parish or among the members of the congregation, and this also applies to the four ships of the church.
Church discs in the south aisle
Next to the southern entrance door hangs a model of the corvette ‘Emanuel’ made in 1877 and donated to the church at the rededication in 1880.
On the same side near the organ is a model of the frigate ‘Dannebro’ made and donated in 1880 on the same occasion as mentioned above.
Church discs in the north aisle
Next to the northern entrance door in the side aisle is a model from 1934 of the 5-masted barque ‘Copenhagen’.
‘Copenhagen’ is displayed in many churches, probably due to the disaster it was when the ship went down in the South Atlantic in 1928 with a crew of 59 men, including 45 young men in training from all over the country.
In the side aisle near the organ hangs the full rigger ‘Moses’, built and donated to the church in 1927.
The image ‘Embrace of Christ’
The picture was painted by Agnethe Kofoed Petersen and served as a temporary altarpiece from August 2010 to May 2011 while Karl Bloch's altarpiece was on loan to the Mormon Museum in Utha.
A cross can be seen in the image. A well-known symbolism for the cross is that the vertical beam carries the divine/God, and the horizontal beam - humanity.
The beams cross at the heart of Jesus.
This is where God meets people.
The altarpiece is based on this symbolism.
In the ‘Embrace of Christ’ are His children, God's church, those who want to be embraced by Him! In the embrace we find warmth, peace, salvation, security and inspiration-inspiration to reach out to our fellow human beings. Hence all these hands. We are the arms of Jesus.
Christ has an open eye that is directed towards us to show that Christ is in contact with us, knows us. His other eye is closed, showing the tenderness of an embrace.
The light field in the upper part of the crossbeam is like an opening in to God or out from God. A kind of ‘God's fingerprint’ on what should be his plan of salvation.
From this field of light arises the cascade of light that partly dissolves the crossbeam - which is an instrument of death - and partly involves the lower right corner, which is the artist's expression of the church's light globe. We light candles there because we believe in hope, new life and an empty tomb. Around the globe of light and in the blue field there are hints of angels beating their wings.
The organ
Visitors to the church are limited to observing the church's organ façade from below, while its musical qualities are best experienced during the service.
Organ music has been played in the church since the early 1500s. This is documented in account books from Queen Christine's stay in Odense.
The current organ was built by the organ company Marcussen og Søn, Aabenraa, in 1962. It has 37 voices divided into three manuals and pedal.
The organ pipes vary greatly in size. The smallest pipe is only 1 cm long and produces a very high tone, while the deepest tone is produced by a pipe over 5 metres high. In total, there are 2,462 pipes, making the instrument suitable for both worship and church music events.
In 1998, a choir organ was also acquired.
The church bells
The way up the tower of St Hans Church is via a 49-step spiral staircase and then 2 chicken ladders, and after 90 steps you reach the bells.
At the top of the tower of St Hans Church there are 3 bells placed in three solid ‘belfries’ of heavy oak in a row from north to south in this order
The bell called ‘The Twelve Bell’ - cast in 1496 according to a Latin inscription by the bell mould maker Peter Hanssen in Flensburg. The mouth width is 98 centimetres. The bell's striking tones are G sharp. It is the second oldest bell in the church
Bell of early medieval type from the 14th century. It has no inscription, date or name of the bell founder. The bell is rarely used as it can only be rung in the old-fashioned way. The width is 64.5 centimetres and the tone is E. It is the oldest bell in the church.
According to the inscription, the bell was cast in 1792 by Hans Christensen Gamst, from the Danish Gamst dynasty of bell founders. It is the largest bell in the church with a width of 114 centimetres. It is the youngest bell in the tower.
In the bottom right corner of the picture you can see the hammer that strikes when the bell is whole and half.
Hear the great bell strike the hour - click on HERE (opens a new window).
Art in the church
On the northern pulpit, two sculptures look down into the church. They were made by artist Gunvor Kappel and purchased for the church in 2023.
