Lundbye’s View of the Church of Our Lady

In the garden of Kalundborg Museum, by the garden house, stands landmark 3 of Lundbye Landmarks. From here you see the Church of Our Lady (Vor Frue Kirke) from almost the same angle as in one of the Danish Golden Age painter J.Th. Lundbye’s earliest and best-known pictures: Kalundborg Church from 1837. Outside the museum’s opening hours the post stands in the western corner of the church square.

The church with four towers

Lundbye was born in Kalundborg and entered the Academy of Fine Arts at the age of 14. In the summer of 1837 he spent a longer stay in his childhood town, and here he painted the small oil painting of the church that now belongs to the National Gallery of Denmark (SMK). It shows the Church of Our Lady with only four towers. The central tower had collapsed in 1827 and was not rebuilt until 1871, so Lundbye painted the church as it has never looked since.

From the same summer comes a pencil sketch of the church seen from the east, and the motif later served as the model for a woodcut in Andreas Flinch’s house calendar for 1842 illustrating the legend of the troll Fin and Esbern Snare. Lundbye returned to the church several times, among others in the drawing Kallundborg Seen from the Fjord from 1843.

The church today

Today the Church of Our Lady once again has its five towers and is the town’s landmark. The farm wing seen in the sketch has been demolished, but from the museum garden you can still compare the church with Lundbye’s picture and see what has changed. Kalundborg Museum itself holds a collection of important works by Lundbye.

Landmark 3 lies in the heart of the old upper town, Højbyen, close to the Lundbye bust, the sculpture at Klostertorvet and Lundbye’s childhood home in Skibbrogade. Find more inspiration for experiences in the area at destinationsjaelland.dk.