Medieval wooden door at Ribe Cathedral with angel and lion by Silva Wischeropp

About "Medieval wooden door at Ribe Cathedral with angel and lion"

by Silva Wischeropp

About the artwork

This architectural shot of Ribe Cathedral was taken in August 2016 during my summer holiday in Jutland, Denmark.

Ribe (German: Ripen) is the oldest town in Denmark and was the administrative seat of Ribe Amt until the Danish municipal reform in 2007. It has 8365 inhabitants and since the municipal reform has belonged to the municipality of Esbjerg Kommune in the region of Syddanmark.
Throughout the Middle Ages until early modern times, Ribe was the most important Danish port on the North Sea. Today, the town has lost its former importance, but thanks to a number of preserved buildings from its heyday, it still offers numerous sights, most notably Ribe Cathedral.

In addition to trade, the Christian church had a strong presence in Ribe. The wooden church built by Ansgar was replaced by a stone building at the beginning of the 12th century, and Ribe has been the episcopal seat of the Ribe diocese since 1117. A cathedral chapter belonging to the cathedral and a cathedral school were endowed in 1145. There were also four monasteries in Ribe: Saint Nicholas (Benedictine monastery, founded at the end of the 12th century), a Dominican monastery (founded in 1228), a Franciscan monastery (the oldest of its order in Denmark - in 1232 - it belonged to the order's province of Dacia) and Saint John's monastery (first mentioned in 1311). The Reformation brought drastic changes. The monasteries were closed, the influence of the church declined. Nevertheless, Ribe remained an intellectual centre.
The cathedral school still exists today as a Latin school.
Ribe is known for its well-preserved old town with the Romanesque cathedral, later extended in Gothic style, the late Gothic town hall and the Dominican monastery (13th-15th century). On the north-western outskirts of the town is Riberhus Slotsbanke, the remains of Riberhus Castle, of which only the moat and ramparts remain today.