The Most Beautiful Sacred Places in Denmark
5 places · updated 13 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most beautiful sacred places in Denmark are Roskilde Cathedral, Grundtvig's Church and The Sand-Covered Church. The list covers 5 sacred places. Last updated 13 October 2026.
Denmark has little building stone, so its churches were raised in brick, granite fieldstone and whitewashed plaster, and they show how much can be done with modest materials. Medieval churches still stand in almost every parish, from the round fortress churches of Bornholm to a royal cathedral, and in the 20th century Danish architects reinvented the brick church once more.
Roskilde Cathedral, the first Gothic cathedral in Scandinavia built of brick, has been the burial place of Danish monarchs for centuries. Grundtvig's Church in Copenhagen, designed by P. V. Jensen-Klint, raises a yellow-brick facade shaped like a great organ. The Sand-Covered Church near Skagen is the whitewashed tower of a medieval church that was abandoned when drifting sand buried its nave. Copenhagen's Church of Our Saviour is crowned by a Baroque spire with an external staircase winding up to its gilded top. Østerlars Church on Bornholm is the largest of the island's round churches, built in the 12th century with thick walls that could serve as a refuge.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roskilde Cathedral | Cathedral | ✓ |
| 2 | Grundtvig's Church | Church building | |
| 3 | The Sand-Covered Church | Church building | |
| 4 | Church of Our Saviour | Church building | |
| 5 | Østerlars Church | Fortified church |
01 Roskilde Cathedral
Roskilde Domkirke
Denmark · 0.8 km from Roskilde55.643° N 12.080° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Kurt Spalinger-Røes · CC BY 3.0 The cathedral standing today was begun in the late twelfth century, under Bishop Absalon or his successor Peder Sunesen. It replaced an earlier church of travertine built around 1080. Brick-making had reached Denmark only around 1160, and Roskilde became one of the first Gothic cathedrals in Scandinavia built of brick. It helped spread Brick Gothic across northern Europe.
Did you know? Christian III's tomb, carved in Antwerp by Cornelis Floris, was held during the Spanish sack of the city in 1576 until the sculptor's widow paid a ransom.
02 Grundtvig's Church
Denmark · 4.4 km from Copenhagen55.717° N 12.534° E
Unknown author · Public domain Architect Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint won that competition, but he wouldn't live to see his design finished. Construction began in 1921 and dragged on for nineteen years, and when Jensen-Klint died in 1930 the site was only partway built.
Did you know? The tower rises 49 metres, and the central nave is vaulted 22 metres above the floor.
03 The Sand-Covered Church
Den tilsandede kirke
Denmark · 31.2 km from Frederikshavn57.714° N 10.550° E
EHRENBERG Kommunikation · CC BY-SA 2.0 The Gothic brick church was built between about 1355 and 1387 and dedicated to Saint Lawrence of Rome. It had a long vaulted nave braced by buttresses, a vestry on the north side, a porch on the south and, from around 1475, a tall west tower with a crow-stepped gable.
Did you know? The church belonged to the Crown until 1459, when it passed to the Hospital of the Holy Ghost in Aalborg.
04 Church of Our Saviour
Vor Frelsers Kirke
Denmark · 2.2 km from Copenhagen55.673° N 12.594° E
Avda · CC BY-SA 3.0 The church itself is Dutch Baroque. It was designed by Lambert van Haven, building began in 1682 and it was consecrated in 1696. Laid out as a Greek cross, it has walls of red and yellow brick on a granite base. For more than half a century it stood without its crowning feature.
Did you know? The four-metre gilded Christ on top has deliberately exaggerated proportions, meant to be seen only from afar, which earned it a reputation as Copenhagen's ugliest statue.
05 Østerlars Church
Østerlars Kirke
Denmark55.171° N 14.962° E
Unukorno · CC BY-SA 4.0 The plan is unusual even among round churches. An apse and an oval chancel open off a large round nave, and the nave is built around a massive hollow central column about six metres across, with a small chamber inside known as "the oven".
Did you know? The church owns three runestones: one reused as the lintel of the north door, one from about 1100 in the porch and one from about 1070 outside.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented — the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What are the most beautiful sacred places in Denmark?
- On our list, Roskilde Cathedral ranks first, followed by Grundtvig's Church and The Sand-Covered Church.
- Why was the church at Skagen buried in sand?
- Drifting sand dunes advanced over the church in the 18th century until the congregation could no longer reach it. It was closed in 1795 and the nave was demolished, leaving only the tower standing.
- Who is buried in Roskilde Cathedral?
- Around forty Danish kings and queens are buried there, including Margaret I and Christian IV, and the cathedral is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- Why do Bornholm's churches look like fortresses?
- The island's four round churches were built in the 12th century with thick walls and upper storeys that could be used for defence and storage at a time of raids across the Baltic.
- How many sacred places are on this list in Denmark?
- The list covers 5 sacred places.