The new church, built of brick and Swedish granite, was modelled after some of the German cathedrals and the churches of Lund and Ribe. Its most characteristic features are the twin towers with their pyramidal roofs, visible from afar. A few Romanesque sculptured stones have been built into the external walls including the two lions flanking a window in the apse.
The INTERIOR is dominated by the Biblical wall paintings of Joakim Skovgaard (1901-6): in the aisles. Old Testament scenes; in the transepts, scenes from the life of Christ; in the choir, the Resurrection and the Ascension. The ceiling paintings, in oil on mahogany, depict the Nativity, flanked by Moses and David and the Prophets. The altar (19th c.) is in gilt bronze. The aisled Romanesque crypt has 12 bays of vaulting borne on 6 columns and 10 semi-columns with granite shafts.
Near the Cathedral stands the Sortder-sogn Church, originally a Dominican church (1227, destroyed by fire in 1726, rebuilt 1 728). The original nave and choir survive. The church has a magnificent carved and gilded Flemish altar of about 1520.
The Regional Museum (Stiftsmuseum) adjoining the Cathedral occupies the Old Town Hall, Luxury travel to Scandinavia a Baroque building by Claus Stallknecht of Altona (Hamburg), who was called to Viborg to help with reconstruction after the great fire. The prehistoric collections include Bronze Age material; the modern section displays applied and decorative art ofthe 1 6th and 17th c. The Skovgaard Museum contains sketches, paintings and sculpture by Joakim Skovgaard, including his preliminary sketches for the frescoes in the Cathedral.
On the E side of the town is the Asmild Church (1100), one of the oldest churches in Denmark (only the walls survive from the original church). This was probably the first Viborg Cathedral, but toward the end of the 12th c. it was given to an Augustinian nunnery of which nothing now survives. Bishop Eskild of Viborg was murdered in front of the high altar in 1132. From the gardens (Klosterhaven) there is a beautiful view of the S0nders0.
SURROUNDINGS. 6 km (4 miles) SW, on the NW shore ofthe Haldsjo, is the manor-house of Hald, the most recent of the five houses which have occupied the site since the early medieval period. It is a neoclassical mansion (1789). Atthe entrance are 1 6 large stones which once marked the boundary ofthe royal game reserve. The fourth manor-house, built around 1700, lay rather nearer the lake; there are remains of the third in Hald Park. The lake, surrounded by hills and valleys, gorges, woodland and heath, offers a wealth of beauty and interest to walkers. 14 km (9 miles) W of Viborg are the Monsted limestone quarries, parts of which are accessible to visitors. The stone of these quarries, which began to be mined around the year 1000, was used in the building of Ribe Cathedral. These underground workings, which were not closed down until 1 953, were popularly known as the King’s Quarries because Frederik VI, after visiting the quarries about 1 830, brought reforms which alleviated the previously inhuman working conditions. 4 km (2 miles) beyond this are the Daugbjerg quarries, said to have been first mined about the year 900, in the time of Gorm the Old. The Kongehus Mindepark (area 1200 hectares 6000 acres) gives some impression of what Jutland must have looked like barely a hundred years ago great expanses of moorland with only small areas of cultivation. The park, which is a nature reserve, was established to commemorate the peasant farmers who won the land for cultivation. A motor road 10 km (6 miles) long runs through the park.
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