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St. Alban's Church
St Alban's viewed from the south.
Location	Churchillparken 6, Langelinie, Copenhagen
Country	Denmark
Denomination	Church of England
Website	www.st-albans.dk
History
Dedicated	17 September 1887
Architecture
Architect(s)	Arthur Blomfield, Ludvig Fenger
Style	Gothic Revival
Completed	1887
Administration
Diocese	Diocese of Gibraltar in Europe
Clergy
Bishop(s)	Geoffrey Rowell
Chaplain(s)	Jonathan Lloyd

St. Alban's Church, often referred to locally as the 'English Church' (Danish: Den Engelske Kirke), is an Anglican church in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Designed by Arthur Blomfield, the church is executed in the in the Gothic Revival style of a traditional English parish church, was consecrated in 1897 and has a continuous history of active royal patronage (its current patron being Elizabeth II). It is located in a peaceful parkland setting, in the northern part of the city centre, at the end of Amaliegade and next to Kastellet, the Gefion Fountain and Langelinie.

History

The first sizable British community in Denmark settled in Elsinore in the early 16th century. The town was an important logistical hub for the collection of Sound Dues. First to arrive was a community of Scots and they had a Scottish altar dedicated to Saint Jacob, Saint Andrew and the Scottish Saint Ninian in the local St. Olai Church. The altar has now been moved to the National Museum of Denmark. Much of the Øresund traffic was British (in 1850 7,000 out of 20,000 passing ships were British) and over the course of time many English shipping agencies were established in Elsinore. There even was a British consul there while Copenhagen only had a vice-consul. However, under the King's Law from 1665, which had instituted absolutism in Denmark, Lutheranism was the only faith allowed to hold religious services in Denmark. During the second half of the 18th century more and more foreign denominations were granted royal exemptions to this prohibition.

Up through the 19th century the English community in Copenhagen grew as the city's significance as a centre of commerce increased. An English congregation held religious services in rented rooms in Store Kongensgade near Kongens Nytorv from 1834. The congregation had ambitions to built their own church and a Church Building Committee was established in 1854 but remained unable to find the means needed for the project. In 1864, it made an appeal to the Prince of Wales and his consort, the Danish-born Princess Alexandra, took it upon her to assist. She managed to raise funds as well as provide a very attractive site for its construction when she persuaded the Danish Ministry of War to grant permission to have the church built on the esplanade outside the citadel Kastellet.

The foundation stone was laid on Saturday, September 19th, 1885, by the Princess of "Wales, who was escorted to the ceremony by her husband and children, the Emperor and Empress of Russia, together with members of the Danish Royal Family, whilst a Guard of Honour was formed by the blue jackets from the royal yacht Osborne.

The church was consecrated on Saturday, 17th September 1887, in the presence of the the Prince and Princess of Wales, the King and Queen of Denmark, the Czar and Empress of Russia, and the King and Queen of Greece, as well as sons and sons-in-law of the Danish King.

The foundation stone of St. Alban's Church was laid on 19 September 1885. The church was designed by Arthur Blomfield. It was consecrated two years later on 17 September 1887. Present on the opening day was a large display of European royalty, including the Prince and Princess of Wales, King Christian IX and Queen Consort Louise of Denmark, Tsar Alexander III and Tsarina Maria Feodorovna of Russia and George I and Olga of Greece. Like Princess Alexandra, both George I and Maria Feodorovna were born Danish, issue of the Danish King and Queen Consort. Also present were the entire Diplomatic Corps, Ministers, representatives of the Army and Navy, church officials, as well as Greek, Russian and Roman Catholic Priests. After the consecration, the Prince and Princess of Wales hosted a lunch on board the Royal Yacht HMY Osborne to which all those who had been closely connected with the realisation of the church were invited.

+ Princess Viggo endowment + Lady Chapel + Bertel Thorvaldsen sculpture + Stained glass windows +perpetual lease by the Danish Ministry of War / Defence +communion plate (still the same one??) and lectern,+

Lucy Andersen's 'Copenhagen and its environs: A guide for travellers', published by Walter Scott in 1888 .. in the author's own words this popular guide to Copenhagen was published to “give a little friendly aid to our Church in Copenhagen (ie the then newly consecrated St Alban's), by devoting any surplus which might arise from the publication to its services”.

Architecture

The church seen from north-east

St. Alban's Church is designed as a traditional English church by Arthur Blomfield who also designed a number of parish churches around Britain and received the Royal Institute of British Architects's Royal Gold Medal in 1891' although the actual construction was supervised and executed by Copenhagen's City Architect, Ludvig Fenger. It is built in the Gothic Revival style inspired by the Early English Style, also known as Lancet Gothic.

The church is built in limestone from the Faxe south of Copenhagen, knapped flint from Stevns and Åland stone for the spire. The conspicuous use of flint as a building material, unusual in Denmark, is another typical trait from England where it is commonly seen in church buildings in the south of the country, particularly East Anglia. The tiles on the roof are from Broseley in Shropshire.

The tower 45 metre SPIRE contains eight tubular bells donated by the Prince of Wales. It was not deemed strong enough to support a full circle of regular bells.

Two bells borrowed from Holmen naval dockyards used for consecration ceremony

Furnishings

Many items of the church's inventory and fittings were donated, including the tiles on the floor and dado which are from Campbell Tile Co. and the carved oakwood pews which were a gift from Thomas Cook and Son. The altarpiece, pulpit and font were donated by Doulton, Lambeth, London,.a leading manufacturer of stoneware and ceramics. For the first time, they were all made in terra cotta with salt glazed details. They were designed by the artist George Tinworth.

The church organ was AN ANONYMOUS DONATION made by J. W. Walker & Sons Ltd and is located in the choir in the southern transept. It was renovated in 1966 by the same company.

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  The altar
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  The pulpit
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  The font
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  The organ
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  St Alban's as illustrated in 1888

Dedication

The dedication of the church to St. Alban is much more symbolic than may at first be obvious. Not only is St. Alban the protomartyr of England; but he also became one of the first saints to be venerated in Denmark when, in 1070, Denmark's own patron saint and protomartyr, St. Canute, started a Danish cult of St Alban which has to some extent lasted to the present day.

The contemporaneous histories of the Life and Passion of St Canute (Latin: Vita et Passio S. Canuti), by Ælnoth of Canterbury (an English Benedictine monk who settled in Denmark in the late 11th century and provides one of the most important contemporary sources for the history of Denmark in the Middle Ages) and the Roskilde Chronicle (Danish: Roskildekrøniken and Latin: Chronicon Roskildense) both record how the man who was to become Canute IV of Denmark – later still, upon being martyred, Canute the Holy (Danish: Knud den Hellige) – and, although Denmark had by his reign had numerous Christian kings, the first king under whom Denmark could truly be said to be a Christian country; returned to Denmark with relics of St. Alban that had been sacked from Ely.

Canute deposited the relics of St Alban in a priory, in Odense, which was not only dedicated to St Alban, but also the place where he would himself eventually be martyred whilst seeking refuge from a peasant revolt. To this day there are still a St. Alban's (Danish: Sct Albani) Roman Catholic church and school in Odense, and even the local brewery is called the Albani Brewery (Danish: Albani Bryggerierne).