Venø Church | Dan Ljungar

Venoe Church is the smallest church under the Danish Church Ministry.  The interior area is 41.2 sq.m. (4.2 x 9.8 meters).

The original part of the stone-walled church was built in the late Middle Ages, after the Reformation, approximately 1540, and extended towards the west during the 17th century, to its present size. The little entrance porch was added in 1863. 

The church has undergone two major refurbishments and new features in recent times – approximately 1880 during the Inner Mission’s arrival on the island of Venoe, and now in 2016-17.  With this latest restoration, the starting point has been a desire for better accessibility for all and the new artwork.

Our underlying idea has been to bring the church back to its original, open, bright and more ascetic expression - characteristics inspired by both the Reformation and the distinctive textural character of the whitewashed walls.  This is where the new additions form a uniform and anonymous background for the new altarpiece and the specially preserved inventory – the pulpit, the baptistry, chandelier, the altar silver, the ancient altar wings and the tablets for priests – all of this has acquired a new life.

In the porch, the doorhole is raised with a circular arc and the new door is of oak. In the north-facing roof surface a small window has been inserted, creating a dim daylighting, creating a dark and shadowy room. This stages the transition into the church room, bathed in sunlight from the three south-facing windows.

The new single-level floor is laid with bricks in a cross-pattern from the entrance to the prostration area before the altar. The bricks are sanded so that the clinkers appear matte with delicate shades of yellow, red and dark gray.

The new inventory pieces are of soap-treated oak and glass-blasted stainless steel and brown brass. The design is contemporary while done with old craft techniques. The benches in oak are assembled with mortise and tenon joints inserted a small wedge of bog oak, while the altar table is made with dove-tail joints.

An entirely new design element is the Venoe Cross, designed in commemoration of the 2017-renovation of the church, which appears as a haut-relief by the grip of the church door, as a bas-relief in the psalm-book-holder behind the benches and placed as an intarsia in the front of the altar table.