The Ansgar Church 860 AD and the wall paintings

Step inside Ansgar Church AD 860 at Ribe VikingeCenter and discover an interpretation of what a church interior might have looked like in the Viking Age. In the dimly lit wooden church, colorful wall paintings tell biblical stories and offer an insight into the imagery of early Christianity. The church brings to life a time when the Christian faith was gaining a foothold in Ribe, while many people still believed in Odin and Thor.

An interpretation of Ansgar’s church in Ribe

In the mid-9th century, the bishop and missionary Ansgar received the king’s permission to build a church in Ribe. The trading town’s connections with Christian regions to the south helped bring the new faith to the town. Excavations around Ribe Cathedral have since uncovered Christian graves from the 9th century, providing evidence of Christianity’s early presence in the area.

The church at Ribe VikingeCenter is neither a surviving Viking Age church nor an exact copy of Ansgar’s original building. It is an informed reconstruction based on knowledge of church construction in the 9th century. Its size and construction are based on the archaeological remains of a church in Tostedt near Hamburg. The exterior carvings are inspired by Viking Age decorations on jewelry and fittings, while the interior draws inspiration from the Christian art of Southern Europe at the time. The reconstruction was consecrated in May 2018.

50 wall paintings in the Carolingian style

Inside, the church walls are decorated with 50 scenes in the Carolingian style, which dates from approximately AD 780–900. The models for the paintings come from Christian books and surviving church walls from the period. The images show how biblical stories could be conveyed visually, making the Christian message understandable and easier to remember.

Artist Trine Theut carried out the research, produced the sketches and painted the scenes. The paintings were created using egg tempera and pigments including ochre, charcoal and umber. Some colors used at the time contained lead or arsenic, so these colors were made with alternative pigments for the reconstruction. The decoration offers a chance to imagine the colorful church interior that the first churchgoers may have encountered.

A church bell modeled on the Hedeby bell

The church bell is a copy of the Hedeby bell, which was found in Hedeby Nor in 1978 and dates to the 10th century. The copy was cast at the Viking Museum Hedeby and then brought to Ribe by cart and Viking ship by the volunteers who took part in the work. Together with the wooden structure, carvings and wall paintings, the bell forms part of the story of early Christianity in Viking Age Ribe.