The Lundbye Bust by the Church of Our Lady

In the churchyard of the Church of Our Lady (Vor Frue Kirke) in Kalundborg, inside the wall facing Adelgade, stands a bust of the Danish Golden Age painter J.Th. Lundbye. It is landmark 2 of Lundbye Landmarks and one of the places in town where you come really close to the painter, who spent his childhood in Kalundborg.

The face of the Brave Foot Soldier

The bust is a copy of the head of the sculptor H.W. Bissen’s well-known statue The Brave Foot Soldier (Den tapre Landsoldat) in Fredericia. The statue was paid for by a public collection that began in 1850 after the First Schleswig War, and it was completed in 1858. Bissen used Lundbye’s face as the model for the soldier. Lundbye had volunteered for the war and was killed by an accidental shot at Bedsted in Southern Jutland on 26 April 1848, aged only 29. The copy of the head was put up in Kalundborg in 1995.

The Bonnevie family

Lundbye’s mother’s family, the Bonnevies, lived in the merchant’s house in town, and the family’s burial place is at the church: a memorial plaque is set into the southern churchyard wall, inside the same wall as the bust. Lundbye himself was buried at Bedsted, where his mother was later laid to rest beside him. A copy of Bissen’s bust stands there too.

A natural stop on the town walk

The bust stands in the heart of the old upper town, Højbyen, a few steps from the five towers of the Church of Our Lady and Kalundborg Museum and close to Lundbye’s childhood home in Skibbrogade. From here you can follow in the painter’s footsteps out to the peninsulas of Røsnæs and Asnæs, where he found many of his motifs. Find more inspiration for experiences in the area at destinationsjaelland.dk.