Relics and Riggings in Roskilde

Saturday, September 12, 2026

Roskilde is a city of about 65,000 people, and rich in 1000 years of history.  Central in the city is the Gothic Roskilde Cathedral that was built about 1200.  It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and an active parish.  

Growing on the church are white grape vines (red grapes don't grow well because of the lack of sun).

It was originally a Catholic church, but since the reformation in the 1500's has been Lutheran.

The altarpiece is from the 1500's, made of oak and gold leaf.

The choir stalls surround the altar. The seats raise so you can stand.

The Cathedral is the official burial site for departed kings and queens of Denmark...there are 39 royal crypts in the Cathedral basement.  

There were elaborate chapels which were monuments to departed kings and queens, each with a unique design and story to tell.  The bodies are buried in the basement crypts.

The female figures in one sarcophagus were created by the same sculptor as the Little Mermaid. These are called the Little Mermaid's sisters, and you can definitely see a resemblance.

There are more than 1000 graves in the church, some marked by grave markers in the floor. (you could buy a spot in the church if you were rich!) 

A clock in the church dates back to 1500 and still works!  It chimes every hour.

The king's door is open only for royalty to enter.  What a magnificent structure built so long ago.  Even though it took 100 years to build, I wonder how they did it.

We took a walk through the town to the pier at the harbor.  Along the way we saw St. John's Spring, named after John the Baptist.  It dates back to 1834. 

The town had lots of shops (but sadly, no time for shopping).  We saw O. Lund's butcher shop!

and a few other interesting sights in the town.

We reached the harbor which was nice and peaceful when we arrived.

But that didn't last long, because our rowdy bunch boarded Viking ships to sail the fjord.  Our captain was Hagar who gave us instructions before we sailed.

It was so much fun...we actually rowed (not very well) but we were better than our fellow travelers in the other boat...they almost rammed us! 

And then the sail went up...very cool.

It ended up being a great experience and we found out that one of our traveling buddies used to race sailboats, so she took over steering and was able to get us close enough to the buoy that Hagar could reach out and touch it! We were impressed!

What a great view from the water, with the Cathedral in the background.

Sailing a Viking ship was a highlight of the day.

Another highlight today was meeting Yenni, the aunt of IndyCar racer Christian Rasmussen!  She has been to Indy a couple of times to see him race.  What a small world!  He is from Copenhagen, not far from here.  There are several racers from Scandinavia, and this is the first time we found someone that has heard about IndyCar!