Tidlige domkirker i Lund og Dalby

Abstract (Swedish)

Early cathedrals in Lund and Dalby

The aim of the article is to present and critically re-evaluate the written end material sources concerning the early cathedrals of Lund and Dalby in Scania, former medieval Denmark and now part of Sweden. The main questions are where and when did exist cathedrals in Scania in the 11th Century, how were their architecture, how can they be dated, and why were there two cathedrals only 11 kilometres from each other at the same time in Lund and Dalby.

By early cathedrals means from the 11th Century before the standing cathedral in Lund. The background of this investigation is several Danish researchers questioning, how it is actually with the churches of Lund. My answer has been: Complicated and disputed.

To contextualize the questions of regarding Scania the article begin with an overview of the early cathedrals in Scandinavia, i.e. the first archbishopric covering the Nordic countries and also the Norwegian areas of the North Atlantic.

To be learnt from this survey that not all bishoprics were located to “civitas” meaning towns, that some lay near to but outside the urbanised settlement, that there are many examples of movement of cathedrals, of divided dioceses and later amalgamation of close lying cathedrals.

The main written sources for the early cathedrals of Lund and Dalby are the following: The chronicle Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum by Adam of Bremen from the 1070s, a number of diplomas starting 1048–50, most famous the diploma by king Canute the Holy of 1085, the martyrium of the king from 1095-96, the Florens list of the 1120s, probably written for Lund becoming an archbishopric 1103–04, a bards poem from 1103–07, the so called Necrologium Lundense starting around 1123, the chronicle by Ælnoth from the 1120s, Liber daticus vetustior from around 1140, Gesta Danorum by Saxo from around 1200, Biskop Sögur from around 1200, a list of Premonstratensian monasteries from 1320. Jon Tursøns church chronicle from 1565, Herman Pedersen Chytræus history of Scania from 1598 and Erich Pontoppidans church history from 1741.

The sources should be evaluated according to closeness to the events they describe and possible tendencies. However, even when they are accepted, there are ambiguity regarding the actual meaning of such Latin words and concepts as founding (fundauit) and monastery (monasterium).

In is not certain, as usually taken for granted, that Henrik was bishop in Lund and Egino in Dalby, however still likely.

The list of the Premonstratensian monasteries is an important reference noting that the church of Trinity (also called Drotten) in Lund once had been a cathedral. However, this is a misinterpretation for Børglum in northern Jutland, which ca be followed from present researchers back to a history of the Premonstratensian order from 1949 by Nobert Backmund further backwards to a publication Bibliotheca Præmonstratensis Ordinis in 1633. Only one transcript of three in one of the four versions of the list names Trinitatis in Lund as a cathedral, the other two writes Børglum, well known as a Premonstratensian monastery and also a bishopric.

There has been a long debate concerning a possible predecessor of the present Saint Lawrence cathedral. Canute the holy should have founded the church, however in 1085 it was sill not completed. Remains found 1941–42, 1959–60 amd 2015-16 under the floor and in the walls of the present cathedral are either interpreted as the independent remains of Canute’s church, a basilica or a minor building with an eastern tower over the chancel – or as the start of the standing building, however where the plans were altered an enlarged when it became a archbishopric. The remains cannot at the moment work in anu convincing architectural reconstruction.

It has been suggested that Saint Clemens at the royal manor in Lund in practice functioned as the church for the bishop in the middle or late 11th century.

Remains of four churches near Kattesund in Lund has been excavated in 1944, 1961, 1974–75 and 1983–84. They are all named Trinitatis or Drotten, however the names for the timber churches are uncertain. Both a large palisade church and the monastery church has been identified as possible cathedrals before the present at Saint Lawrence.

The palisade church from c. 1060 is marked in the street. A large romanesque stone church is exhibited in a museum in a basement. The stone church had several building phases and functioned in the 12th century as a premonstratensian monastery church, however the dating of the oldest stone church is highly disputed with dates ranging from c. 1020 to c. 1160. Saxo mentioned that bishop Bernhard, was buried in a crypt in Lund, however it was hardly in Trinitatis. It is also an open question, if the church had an eastern tower over the chancel.

Parts of a romanesque basilica is preserved from around 1060 in Dalby consecrated to the Holy Cross. A written source notes it was founded by king Sven Estridsen. The church was excavated in 1919 and again 1965–66 and 1977. The nave probably had added a now disappeared tower or hall in the west. The present tower is from early 12th century and later. Suggestions of an older and smaller stone with an eastern tower over the chancel (as supposed at Saint Lawrence in Lund) is not convincing. The existence of a royal palace west of the cathedral in the 11th century is questioned.

The last remains of All Saints monastery in Lund disappeared in the 18th century, however excavations around 1840 together with a nearby found capital and a new discovered drawing makes in plausible, that it was a Romanesque stone basilica from the middle of the 11th century. A written source from 1136 confirms the continuation of a cooperation between the canons here and those from Saint Lawrence and Holy Cross in Dalby, which might be a sign of a cathedral chapter.

The author of this article finally proposes to view the development of cathedrals in Scania in four phases: 1) Until c. 1060 ambulating biskops, uncertain where they were settled. 2) C. 1060–66, the author proposes, that Henrik was bishop at All Saints in Lund and Egino at Holy Cross in Dalby. 3) C. 1066 until the Saint Lawrence began as a cathedral functioned All Saints as the cathedral of Lund. When the transition was completed is uncertain – at the donation in 1085, 1103-04 when Lund became a archbishopric, 1123–31 when the crypt was consecrated, or even as late as 1145–46, when the high chancel was consecrated.

Neither the written nor the material sources offer any explanation on why there were two cathedrals close by at the same time. The author finds the interpretation by Michael H. Gelting most convincing, i.e. that the two bishoprics represented two political directions, where Hamburg-Bremen and king Sven Estridsen awaited Egino in Dalby to take over the whole diocese of Scania, when Henrik in Lund died.

Concluding, the article presents a partly new story based in principle on the same sources as in the past with three locations in play – All Saints in Lund, Holy Cross in Dalby and Saint Lawrence in Lund.

• author: Wienberg, Jes
• organization: Historical Archaeology
• publishing date: 2025-04
• type: Contribution to journal
• publication status: submitted
• subject: Archaeology
• in: Hikuin
• publisher: Forlaget Hikuin
• ISSN: 0105-8118
• language: Danish
• LU publication?: yes
• id: 30ac5bbe-a84b-4919-ba32-f38f5c35432f
• date added to LUP: 2025-04-29 11:18:16
• date last changed: 2025-05-14 10:04:24