dyrehave and bellevue

so the days are winding down…and i finally took the day trip i’ve been wanting to do all spring. i took my bike on the train and spent the day in/near klampenborg, visiting dyrehave and bellevue. jægersborg dyrehave (or ‘deer garden’) was once a private reserve for king frederick iii and is now managed as a forest park. about 2000 deer (of three different varieties! some albino…) live and roam free there (within the park boundaries) – it was really fun to be biking along and see them running through the woods. they’re not tame enough that you can walk right up to them, but are calm enough for a few action zoom photos. : ) after biking through dyrehave, i went to the beach at bellevue, where danish architect arne jacobsen designed a number of buildings in the 1930s, including some lovely and simple beach structures…which served as a nice background for some sunning and a little beach nap.

all of the park entrances have these official red gates

i’ve been told that peter liep’s house is a nice place to stop for a cup of hot chocolate in the park…but maybe not on such a gorgeous and sunny day. still, the decor is fitting…

also within the park is bakken, the world’s ‘oldest existing’ theme park…

the landscape in dyrehave is really great – lots of giant old trees…and some giant old tree ruin

my first close-up deer encounter

the lovely landscape…

…and the deerscape!

this was a great sight…two deer dashed out into the meadow in front of these riders

the ‘hermitage,’ a royal hunting lodge added by one of frederick’s successors

riders and the hermitage castle/detail of the lodge roof

on the other side of the hermitage, there were tons of schoolkids picnicking on the hill, looking out toward the øresund

landscape and hermitage/deer in the meadow, heading for the herd

deer crossing!

next stop was the harbour near klampenborg station…

explorer knud rasmussen looks out over the sound/looking down the beach toward bellevue

two residential typologies at bellevue

view of one of jacobsen’s beach structures

jacobsen structure details

changing/showering pavilions

beach-facing elevation detail – nice and simple! and white – very danish…

my napping spot…a perfect end to a lovely trip!

bornholm’s round churches

visiting bornholm’s round churches was one of the ‘themes’ of our trip. the collection of four churches is a kind of architectural icon for bornholm – they’re all similar in form, materials, and construction (though each has its own individual personality), and were all built between 1150 and 1250. they’re super practical buildings – the round shape of the churches allowed them to serve as storage places for grain and other commodities as well as to defend against viking raids during the unrest of the middle ages. there are also some theories afloat about a connection between the round churches and the knights templar, who were crusading around this time. the churches are two or three stories and are constructed of thick stone walls with central pillars that support circular barrel vaults on each floor. the conical roofs were added in 1600; before that, the churches were crowned with open battlements and embrasures (so they looked more like little castles). i really enjoyed visiting them – and they’re spaced out quite well on the island, so it gave us a chance to see a lot of the in-between. it was fun to search for them, because we could see the conical roofs from so far away…they’re definitely landmarks on the very rural island. and they’re lovely little buildings. so…here’s a mini-tour of bornholm’s round churches:

Olsker______________________________________________________

olsker church is the tallest and slimmest of the four churches – it’s on a hill and is so tall relative to its surroundings that it once served as a navigation point for fisherman at sea; it gets its name from the hero-king ‘olaf the holy,’ a major figure in a battle between the christians and the heathens

the buttresses were added in the 1800s to stabilize it/tiny apse

inside detail/outside detail

we got to climb up to the third level…via this wee door and steep staircase/the wooden roof construction is amazing!!

the round nave and tiny ship hanging from the ceiling; the upper part of the central column is painted with frescoes of biblical scenes/spiral stair to the choir

Nyker_______________________________________________________

nyker church (‘new church’ or ‘all saints church’) was built from granite boulders, except for the central column, which was constructed using local limensgade stone

nyker was the smallest of the four churches, with only two stories (it used to have three, but the top level was removed with the battlements)

inside detail/outside detail

the frescoes on the central pillar at nyker church are from the 1300s

the round nave/view to the apse

Østerlars_____________________________________________________

østerlars (or ‘east st. lawrence’s’) is the largest (and i think most visited) of the four churches

its distinctive buttresses were added in the 1500s and 1600s to keep the walls from pushing outward/view looking straight up at the roof construction – crazy!

indoor detail/outdoor detail

the central pillar of østerlars church is so large that it is inhabitable – its nickname is ‘the oven’…the vaulted space is now used as a baptistery/view of the radiating pew boxes and the altarpiece

the lovely cemetery on the church’s exterior

Nylars______________________________________________________

nylars church is dedicated to st. nicholas

lovely site among the fields/cemetery churchyard

indoor detail/outdoor detail

view of the round nave and the choir…the frescoes on the central pillar of nylars church are the oldest preserved examples on bornholm and date to about 1250

i really liked the bluish color of the pillar stone (‘bornholm silurian limestone’)…and the frescoes depicting scenes from genesis: ‘the creation and fall of man in seven scenes’

bornholm: landscape/seascape

here’s the promised landscape photo post…i just wanted to share these photos separately because i was so impressed/amazed by the variety of different (and picturesque) landscapes contained on a 590km² island (that’s 230 square miles for you u.s.’ers), of which we saw only half. needless to say, i made a LOT of photo stops while biking. there are additional photos on my flickr page, but these are my favorites. hope you enjoy them!