Viborg Cathedral - Rebuilding

Rebuilding

The church was closed due to lack of funds, and between 1800 and 1814 was used as a grain silo.

In 1859 in preparation for restoring the cathedral, it was decided that the walls were so unstable that the church would need to be dismantled and be rebuilt. The designer, Julius Tholle, wanted to keep as much of the medieval building as was feasible and incorporate it into the new building. In 1863 the process of tearing the church down was completed and the cornerstone for the new cathedral was laid. Tholle died in 1871 and his plan was scrapped. The older sections which were deemed too unsalvageable were torn down.

Viborg Cathedral was rebuilt in brick, and then a granite facade attached to achieve the look of a granite church for significantly less money. The building was closely patterned after the ancient Romanesque cathedral at Lund in southern Sweden. This was a controversial decision because the appearance of the cathedral was nothing like the former building. The church was completed and consecrated in 1876. As a result, the present cathedral is a 19th century version of what the builders thought a Romanesque cathedral should look like.

Because the entire contents of the church were lost in the 1726 fire, all the contents to be seen in the church were either taken from other churches or created by artists and craftsmen after 1876.

Joachim Skovgaard painted frescoes in the church as a reminder of the medieval paintings which were part of the decoration of the ancient cathedral between 1900 and 1913.

In the two towers hang five bells. The medieval bells were destroyed in the catastrophic fire of 1726. Caspar Kønig cast three bells, including the largest, in 1730. P.P. Meilstrup the Elder cast a bell for the cathedral in 1837. The most recent bell and the smallest is one cast by B. Løw & Son.