A Window for the Preacher

St. Hans Church is a Johannite monastery church built of red bricks, located in the center of Odense, close to Kongens Have and Odense Castle. Originally, when the church was constructed, it was situated in the northernmost part of Odense as the city appeared in the medieval era. The earliest mention of the church dates back to 1295, when it was actually called St. Michael's Church. Later, in 1329, it was referred to as St. Hans Monastery. The church is built in the Gothic style and features several exquisite details. The most curious one of them is a window on the south side that was used as an external pulpit. From here, services could presumably have been held for lepers and the excommunicated, who were not allowed inside the church. During World War II, the church’s two priests used this external pulpit for several services attended by the people of Odense. Not much remains of the original church, which has been modernized three times, most recently in 1997-98.
Inside the church today, you can see a unique collection of large and beautifully decorated tombstones that were used by the medieval nobility. Previously, these were embedded in the floor, but today they are displayed along the walls. Another striking feature is the altarpiece with painter Carl Bloch’s large painting of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane from 1879.