Stege Church is located in the south part of the town of Stege, just next to a small peninsula. It was build close to the now demolished Stege Castle, which used to stand on the most southerly point in the peninsula.
History
The church was build in the first half of the 13th century, and there are several referances to Stege in the 13th century including a mention of the parish priest of Stege Castle, at a time when there was a close relationship between the now demolished castle and the church.
Today the church is an example of brick Gothic building, but in the walls and nave and tower there are traces of a Late Romanesque structure which was probably build by Jakob Sunesøn, a cousin of Bishop Absalon, who ruled Møn until his death in 1246. In the second half of the 15th century, the church was rebuilt.
Architechture
The brick building has an overall appearance of a Gothic church, and consist of a nave divided into two sections. If the chancel was build in the 1460’s, it might have been inspired of Maribo Cathedral.
Inside the church you will find a funeral chapel of the families Moltke and Hage.
The sacristy on the northside, which was added in 1907-1909 when the rest of the church was under restauration. The present alter table are also from this period, and replaced the old alter piece.
In the middle of the ile, you will see the church ship “Justisia” who was given to the church in 1718 by a sailor named Hans Larsen.
Frescos
The church holds some rather naive frescoes, supposely done by the Master of Elmelunde. They are mainly concentrated around the choir and main nave.
For several centuries they were coved with whitewash, due to the post-reformation era, when lutheran ministers found the fresco's to evocative of Catholic theme, and ordered them to be whitewashed. Although it can seem a bit bad, it was the whitewashing that actually preserved the fresco's so we can enjoy them today.
Re-discovered Fresco's
In 1892/93 some frescos from three differen periods was discovered and restored.
Around the romanesque window in the nave, there are traces of black and yellow decorations.
On the north wall of the main nave there’s an unrestored section of little white and red roses framed with black lines. They are probably from around the 14th century.
The heightened vaults were decorated with simple, quite primitive decorations, and in the western part of the nave, there is a row of grotesque heads in the vaults and on the walls.
It’s also possible to see primitive figures of a man and a woman holding each others hands.
Another pair have swords in their hands and are tied together with a rope. But it’s also possible to see lively scenes of dancing and hunting.
Information:
On GoogleMaps: Stege Church