Dances of Death in Scania

Malmø

St. Petri in Malmø
St. Petri in Malmø. The chapel is in the annex to the left of the entrance.
St. Petri in Malmø, Grave slab
Grave slab in the chapel

Malmø is located in Scania, an area that traditionally was Danish but was lost to the Swedes. The Swedes consider St. Peter's church a sister church of St. Mary's Church in Lübeck. People in Lübeck, on the other hand, consider St. Peter's in Malmø to be one out of many daughter churches.

In St. Peter's church there used to be lots of frescoes from the 1400ies, i.e. while Malmø was still Danish. About 1850 the church underwent a severely brutal "renovation", where the plaster was knocked off all the walls, most of the woodworks was destroyed and the grave slabs that covered most of the church floor were dug up and broken.

Fortunately the so-called Krämarekapellet (= The Tradesmen's Chapel) was at this time used by the fire-corps for housing the fire-engine, and there was no access to the chapel from the church. For this reason the frescoes and grave slabs survived, and in this richly decorated chapel we get a glimpse of the treasures that were destroyed.

Here one can see a dance of death with pope, emperor, bishop, king, queen and citizen. There have been some inscriptions but they are illegible now. The bishop and the king are fairly well preserved whereas the emperor is totally obliterated.

Click on the thumbnails for further information.

The dance of death in Malmø, part 1The dance of death in Malmø, part 2The dance of death in Malmø, part 3The dance of death in Malmø, part 4The dance of death in Malmø, part 5The dance of death in Malmø, part 6
The Tradesmen's Chapel in Malmø, click on each section for further details

Ronneby

The dance of death in Ronneby
The dance of death in Ronneby

In the book "A Catalogue of Wall-Paintings in the Churches of Medieval Denmark 1100-1600" Knud Banning describes a dance of death in Ronneby in Blekinge, Sweden. Every person is dancing with a skeleton and every two persons are man and woman. All together 10 humans appear.

There are still fragments of a text: "Fyrstinde" (princess) and "Bonde oc Bondequinde" (peasant and peasant woman). The text ends in Latin.

The church of Ronneby is full of an impressive number of paintings and Danish texts, which were changed by the Swedes when they initiated their ethnical purges.

The picture above is from Axel Bolvig's site Kalkmalerier i danske kirker (= Frescoes in Danish churches).

Part 2, Jungshoved and Ørslev Up to Dances of Death in Danish Churches

Dansk Select language The medieval dance of death Danish Dances of Death Danish churches Malmø and Ronneby