Ringsted is mostly a modern town, with a bustling shopping centre but little in the way of tourist attractions. If you’re passing through, however, it’s worth stopping at the imposing Sankt Bendts Kirke, Scandinavia’s oldest brick church. It was built in 1170 by Valdemar I, partly as a burial sanctuary for his father, Knud Lavard, and partly as a political act, to intertwine the influences of the Valdemar family and the Catholic Church.
Sankt Bendts’ most interesting features are its magnificent 14th-century frescoes. These include a series depicting Erik IV (1216–50), whose short and turbulent reign saw him warring against his own family and the local peasantry, before he was assassinated on the orders of his brother Abel. The frescoes of Erik (known as ‘Ploughpenny’ for the despised tax he levied on ploughs) were painted in a doomed campaign to get the dead king canonised. They show Queen Agnes seated on a throne; on her left Ploughpenny’s murderers stab the king with a spear, while on the right the king’s corpse is retrieved from the sea by fishermen.
The church was a royal burial place for 150 years: flat stones in the aisle floor beneath the nave mark the graves of Denmark’s early royals. An interesting find came from one of these tombs. Queen Dagmar (1186–1213), the first wife of Valdemar II, was a Bohemian princess revered by the Danes. In 1683, her tomb was opened and a small gold cross with finely detailed enamel work was discovered. Now known as the Dagmar Cross , it is thought to date from AD 1000. One side shows Christ with arms outstretched on the cross and the other side depicts him with the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist, St John and St Basil. The Byzantine-styled cross is now in the national museum in Copenhagen, with a replica on display in Sankt Bendts Kirke. Copies are traditionally worn by brides who marry in the church.
Note that the church is closed to visitors whenever there are weddings, a particularly common occurrence on Saturdays in April and May.
Ringsted lies 65km southwest of Copenhagen. If driving, take the E20 highway to exit 14. Trains to Ringsted run several times an hour from Copenhagen (Dkr88, 37 to 48 minutes), as well as from Roskilde (Dkr44, 16 to 22 minutes).
