Danmarkshistorien — Vor Frue kirke og kloster i Aarhus, 1060–

Source text

Excerpts filed 26 Sept 2026 from https://danmarkshistorien.lex.dk/Vor_Frue_kirke_og_kloster_i_Aarhus,_1060- (Ane Bysted).

• First named Vor Frue in 1558; in the Middle Ages Skt. Nikolai; originally Aarhus’s cathedral. Mid-13th century taken over by Dominican brothers (sortebrødre / Blackfriars / preaching friars), who built the three cloister wings. After the Reformation (hospital from 1541); today a foundation for the elderly.
• First stone church in the decades after 1060 as cathedral for the new Aarhus diocese; outside the ramparts north of the river. Travertine and fieldstone; crypt under the choir with three eastern apses. Dedication to St Nicolaus; a late source claims consecration in 1087.
• Crypt discovered by chance during restoration in 1955; excavated by National Museum and rebuilt; consecrated as church again in 1957 (Skt. Nikolai).
• New cathedral inside the ramparts begun in the 1190s; Dominicans founded a house in Aarhus c. 1230 and received the old cathedral. Dominicans: mendicant urban order; churches open to the public.
• Second half of 1200s: Dominicans rebuild (new choir, later brick nave; old north wall reused). South aisle mid-1400s; tower c. 1500.
• Dominicans left Aarhus already 1530; Christian III made the monastery a general hospital in 1541.