Sankt Mariæ Kirke & Karmeliterklostret

Helsingør


Karmeliterklostret is one of Scandinavia’s few fully preserved monastic cloisters, its arched brick arcades giving the feel of an Oxford college. The large attached church has some rather eclectic 15th-century frescoes, in which frogs, foxes, bulls and rams spring from bizarre-looking faces, and where pipers and lute players burst from giant flowers.

Other church highlights include an ornate rococo gallery and a 17th-century organ, once played by baroque composer Dieterich Buxtehude (1637–1707) who was so famed in his day that in 1705, the young Johann Sebastian Bach is said to have walked 400km to meet him.


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