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| Third Day - Lund & Malmö (The distance between the two cities is only about 20 km) |
The morning we spent walking around in Lund. We started by visiting Lund Cathedral, because that opened early. It's not an easy building to fit into your camera, though...
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| Lund Cathedral |
There was a cathedral in Lund even before 1085 but it is not known whether it was in exactly the same place as this one, which dates back to 1104 and was originally built as a Romanesque basilica, constructed from blocks of sandstone. Only the apse has remained unchanged throughout the centuries.
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| Gothic altarpiece dating from 1398 |
Beneath the church there is a large crypt, famous for the sculptures on some of the pillars, and especially one:
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| Lund Cathedral - the Crypt |
Lund cathedral also has a famous astronomical clock, created around 1425. It has been renovated many times and is still working. In addition to showing the time on a 24-hour dial, it displays things like the moon phases, zodiac signs and a calendar with weekdays and dates. Twice a day, a small built-in organ also plays a tune, while a procession of three kings pass by the Holy Virgin and Child in the middle. We thought that might be worth seeing, so decided to come back for the 12 o'clock "show". (And we did, but I'll save the pictures of that for another post!)
In the meantime, we went to visit Kulturen, which is a combined indoor and open-air museum, featuring an extensive collection of historical buildings and gardens in the heart of Lund.
On our way back to the hotel, we had lunch at this restaurant:
After a short rest back at the hotel, we drove the 20 km to Malmö (which is the third largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Göteborg/Gothenburg). There we first visited Malmöhus (Malmö Castle), built in the 1530s by King Christian III of Denmark (replacing an even older fortress). Historically, this was one of the most important strongholds of Denmark. Malmöhus has now been restored in the spirit of the 16th century and is part of the Malmö Museums. The castle is part of Sweden´s cultural heritage and is managed by the National Property Board.
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| At Malmöhus Castle |
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| Somewhere inside - facing a mirror wall and wondering where to go next... |
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| That way!! |
After having seen the Castle, we got into the car again and drove a little bit closer to the Old Town; where we then also randomly strolled around for a while, before returning "home" to Lund.
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| Malmö Old Town |
We also found St Petri (St Peter's) church. That was not so hard, as the tower rose high above other buildings!
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| St Petri Church, Malmö |
This seems to be the best day so far! Lund cathedral is mystical and beautiful. And the clock! I can't wait til that post. I like your hat. You are looking so pretty in it, and your blue outfit.
ReplyDeleteYes in the Lund cathedral you could really feel the "weight" of many centuries gone by...
DeleteLund looks fantastic - both the cathedral and the buildings and gardens at "Kulturen"! My kind of place entirely.
ReplyDeleteMalmö is also impressive, but if I had to choose, Lund would be my favourite so far.
How kind of that knight in armour to show you the way :-)
I would say Lund was my favourite too, Meike :)
DeleteI like the narrow street in the old town and love that building where the people are sitting in the sun. you would not be sitting in the sun here for sure... the cathedral is gorgeous, inside and out and I like the model of it on the inside
ReplyDeleteEven though it was sunny it was not excessively hot (as you might also conclude by both of us wearing jackets in some pictures). But no, we did not sit outside at that restaurant but took a table inside instead.
DeleteThere appears to b an intimacy to Lund that gives it the edge over Malmö but I love to see them both and make my mind up then. The idea of eating al fresco as one does in Italy and France has always appealed to me when on holiday (probably just because it's different to my usual café habits).
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