GO BY BICYCLE TO THE ON BEAUTIFUL EAST

In 2017 it is 500 years since monk started the Reforma- tion in Germany. It resulted in ground swells – also in East Fyn, where the royal town of was in the centre of the dramatic events. Issued to mark the anniversary of the Reformation, this cycle map is now being reissued in 2020.

Join the Museums of Eastern Funen on two different Reformation bicycle tours around the Reformation on East Funen and enjoy the beautiful rolling landscape. From holy, Catholic relics in the parish churches to splendid stately homes to the centre of the royal power in Nyborg – the first Danish reformation capital – with Nyborg Castle as NYBORG WITHIN THE RAMPARTS the starting point of Christian III’s new Protestant realm. (SEE MAP ENLARGEMENT) GPS 55.313061, 10.788570 The Museums of Eastern Funen have published this special route map NYBORG CASTLE (SEE MAP ENLARGEMENT) with bicycle routes and a historical description of all route points. The Nyborg is known as “the heart of the Danish realm”. The town was the whole map is marked with GPS coordinates, so it is easy to find your GPS 55.312701, 10.786876 centre of the realm for many years, where countless major decisions way. You can get really up close and personal to the history at Nyborg with implications for and Europe were taken. In the 1540s, Castle! Although Nyborg Castle is closed due to restoration, it can be King Christian III turned the town into a powerful royal seat. Admit- Explore the picturesque landscape and get a great insight into the enjoyed from outside. Nyborg Castle played a major role in the ’ tedly it was in , Germany that the spiritual Reformation history in a fun and healthy way! NYBORG transition from Catholicism to the Protestant faith, as the stage for the took place, but it was in Nyborg where the worldly Reformation really ØKSENDRUP dynasty, the power and the people who took the decisions. It was the took root. As the first royal town, Nyborg was rebuilt in the new Read more at www.visitnyborg.com GO BY BICYCLE TO main building in the country’s new Protestant capital, where the new reformatory world view of Christian III in his extensive remodelling of ST. REGISSE HESSELAGERGAARD faith and power was to be staged at the castle, which was the symbol the castle and town. It was also where the Count’s Feud, the bloody HOLCKENHAVN HAVE A GREAT TOUR! THE REFORMATION ON DRIGSTRUP of Danish royal power and the closest we come to medieval Christians- civil war and the war of succession, started in the wake of the Refor- MESINGE borg.Here the country’s first Constitution, Håndfæstningen (“Hand- mation. The inner town of Nyborg lies like the yolk of an egg between BEAUTIFUL EAST FUNEN binding”) 1282, was signed and the Danish Parliament met here to the church and the castle, and it is surrounded by a moat on all sides. discuss and make decisions on behalf of the whole realm. Nyborg This makes the town a perfect stop on your route around the beautiful Castle will be reopened to the public in 2023. East Funen countryside.

KORSBRØDREGÅRDEN (SEE MAP ENLARGEMENT) GPS 55.311332, 10.792531 Korsbrødregården was not an actual monastery, but was owned by one of the largest and wealthiest monastic orders, the Order of St. John, from the 1440’s and up to the time of the Reformation. It belon- ged under the order’s headquarters in Denmark in Antvorskov near NYBORG CHURCH (SEE MAP ENLARGEMENT) SVINDINGE CHURCH (9E) . Before the Reformation, peasants and citizens could go to the GPS 55.311498, 10.792630 ØKSENDRUP CHURCH (9F) GPS 55.216692, 10.687335 order for alms to the poorest, use its hospitals and get curative herbs Nyborg Church was consecrated in the early 1400’s to the Virgin Mary. GPS 55.219137, 10.733992 Svindinge Church is in an old medieval village, but in fact, Svindinge when sick. Like other monastic orders, the order was dissolved after Before the Reformation, Maria was an important Saint, and it was to There is something very rare to be found inside Øksendrup Church. A Church is from the years just after the Reformation’s introduction in the Reformation, and many monasteries were emptied and the land her you could pray, so she could pass on your request to her son, Jesus. small Catholic relic from before the Reformation consisting of a Denmark. This makes it one of only two Renaissance churches we have sold. The Danish Luther, Hans Tausen, was a Johannite monk in Protestantism broke away from large portions of the cult of the saints lead-encased human tarsal bone. This may not sound like much, but in in Denmark! It was Christoffer Valckendorf, a powerful man, Lord Slagelse when he was young and he had certainly been a guest at in Denmark, and only a few Catholic saints are celebrated today. For the wake of the Reformation, Luther conducted a major purge of Great Chamberlain and the guardian of King Christian IV, who built Korsbrødregården in Nyborg, which lay on the travel routes through example, St. Lucia and St. John. According to tradition, the church Catholic relics. When you can still see a relic such as this in Øksendrup the church. Christian IV was the grandson of Christian III, King of the the country. Korsbrødregården can also boast of being one of Den- was built by Margrethe I to mark the victory over the Swedes in the Church, it is witnesses to the small glimpses of Catholicism that Reformation in Denmark. Valckendorf’s intentions were not necessa- mark’s oldest preserved secular buildings. This is something quite battle of Åsle in 1389, which led to the unification of the three Nordic Protestantism did not completely eradicate. Before Protestantism, rily to underline his King’s Protestant realm, but rather his family’s special, even for an old medieval town like Nyborg. The street network kingdoms of Denmark, and , in the geographically relics were a coveted goal of pilgrimages. The relics usually belonged to status. Nevertheless, a Renaissance church is an exciting insight into in the town is the same as it was back in the days of Catholicism, while largestkingdom in Europe: The Kalmar Union After the Reformation, or had a connection to a Catholic saint and were therefore attributed the then newly-introduced Protestantism. Here the new Protestant the building facades are new. This is yet another example of the town’s Christian III extended the church with an extra side aisle as part of with great value and power. The relic is set behind a glass plate behind faith’s great noble family staged their power and new faith. You can interesting history being hidden just below the surface! making Nyborg his Protestant Reformation capital. the altar. still see the family memorials and large altarpieces.

HESSELAGERGAARD (11G) GPS 55.158452, 10.763734 BIRKENDE (5C) ST. REGISSE SPRING, FRØRUP (9E) The beautifully situated Hesselagergaard dates back to the 13th cen- GPS 55.236926, 10.702011 tury, but not all parts of the building are from that time. The Reforma- GPS 55.381234, 10.564485 Before the Reformation, people travelled far to visit the sacred healing tion also left its mark on the buildings. During the Count’s Feud, Hans Tausen, the ordained reformer known as “the Danish Luther”, DRIGSTRUP CHURCH (2D) spring. Many legends are associated with St. Regisse Spring. One legend Hesselagergaard’s main building burned down. It was Chancellor helped introduce Protestantism in Denmark. He shared Luther’s GPS 55.466268, 10.609045 relates to the murder of the Christian woman, Regisse, by the pagan Johan Friis, an influential and well-travelled man during Christian III’s opinion that the Church did not need to be a connecting link between Drigstrup Church is believed to be built on an ancient holy place in the villagers. When the village was going to bury the woman, her wounds time, who built the new part of the building in the wake of the Count’s God and man. Tausen was born in the East Funen village of Birkende 12th century. Something very special about Drigstrup Church is the were healed and the ground opened up under the killer and he fell Feud. Therefore, the building was also built with an eye on troubled and was a very central figure in the Danish Reformation. He met Danish Reformation King, Christian III’s bible from 1550. The bible straight into hell. Then the spring arose. When the pagan town dwellers times, which, among other things, can be seen in the gate and the Luther at the University in Wittenberg, and when he later returned stands on the altar during church services and religious ceremonies. saw this miracle, they rushed off to become Christians. Even though bridges that have to be scaled before you could get to the building. At home to Denmark, he was sent to Viborg from Antvorskov Monastery The bible disappeared in 1704, but was recovered in 1941, when it the cult of holy springs disappeared after the Reformation, the super- the same time, it is a wonderful representation of the new faith’s and in Slagelse, where he continued preaching, however, his starting point turned up by chance in an antique shop in – another of the stition remained with people, especially in the countryside and spring power’s architecture that can also be seen at Nyborg Castle, and which was increasingly more in Luther’s mindset. It was Hans Tausen who Reformation’s main towns in Denmark. The Church’s baptismal font is journeys, which were called “popery”, were not completely banned is the forerunner of the Renaissance architecture that characterises translated the Bible into Danish, and passed on Luther’s idea that the carved in primitive, Romanesque granite and is from the time after the since the offerings from the travellers was a large part of the Church’s Rosenborg, Frederiksborg and other royal castles on North . Bible should be understandable to all – not only priests and the clergy Reformation. was one of the sacraments that Protestantism income. St. Regisse Spring is still visible and the area is perfect for a The beautiful area around Hesselagergaard is used for hunting and within the Church. Visit the Hans Tausen monument and experience a did not remove from church ceremonies. Luther was, among other picnic in the open air. Throw your picnic basket in the bicycle basket farming today. The estate is located close to the picturesque fishing bit of history of the man the man who played a major role in bringing things, against confession, ordination and the last rites. Protestantism and enjoy East Funen’s lovely nature in holy surroundings. village of , which is also well worth a visit during your trip. the Reformation to Denmark. retained communion and baptism.

KERTEMINDE (2E) GPS 55.449251, 10.657926 The man who lent his name to the last Danish civil war, the Count’s HOLCKENHAVN (7G) Feud, the bloody civil war, which ended with the Reformation, was GPS 55.291739, 10.774139 Count Christopher of Oldenburg. Oldenburg was on the opposite side Beautiful is packed with history and has roots of the Reformation King Christian III, and hired by supporters of the going back to the 14th century. During the Reformation, the castle was King’s imprisoned and Catholic cousin, Christian II. In August 1534, owned by Knud Ebbesen Ulfeldt, who helped to seal the Recess of MESINGE CHURCH (1D) Count Christoffer landed his horsemen and infantry at Kerteminde, in 1536. The Recess officially introduced the new church where he succeeded in defeating Christian III’s troops from Funen. order from Catholicism to Protestantism in Denmark. Many Danes had GPS 55.501494, 10.648305 Unfortunately for Oldenburg and Christian II, victory was short-lived already become Protestants in the years before, but now it happened Frescoes from the Catholic times have been found under the later and the plan to put Christian II on the throne failed, because the conclusively. Knud Ebbesen Ulfeldt was also involved in the District MARTIN LUTHER white washed walls. The whitewashed walls in Danish churches are Reformation was introduced in the wake of the Count’s Feud. A few Day in in 1539, where the Church Ordinance was signed. The 1483-1546 otherwise not a direct result of the Reformation, but a later Puritan Catholic artefacts from before the Reformation can be seen in the Church Ordinance corresponds to the Protestant Church’s Constitu- taste. There is the rosette in the chancel and the decoration on the arch church at Kerteminde. These include, among other things, a collection tion, and the German reformer and Luther’s Assistant, Johannes ribs is by the legendary “Mesinge Painter,” who is also the master box that has contained relics, but most of the church’s fixtures are Bugenhagen, helped with the drafting. The current Holckenhavn was behind the frescoes in both and Flødstrup Churches. from after the Reformation. built after the Reformation.