When you stand in front of Jesus Church in Valby, it almost feels like travelling south in time. The red brick church with its slender free-standing bell tower is brewer Carl Jacobsen's personal dream of giving Valby both a parish church and a family burial church, ‘which in beauty should surpass all other churches in Copenhagen’.
The idea arose in 1881, construction began in 1884, and in 1891 the church was consecrated. Jacobsen's fortune from the Carlsberg brewery paid for the entire project, and beneath the church he had a crypt built where he himself, his wife Ottilia, their children and his parents lie in richly decorated coffins.
Inside, the space opens up like a bright, Nordic basilica with Italian and French influences. Architect Vilhelm Dahlerup drew inspiration from Byzantine and early European church buildings, and almost every surface is filled with symbols, mosaics, sculptures and small details that you only notice at second glance.
Music is an important part of the church's soul. Jesus Church houses the only organ in the Nordic region built by the famous French organ builder Cavaillé Coll, and the congregation uses it extensively for concerts, both classical and more experimental, which are announced on the church's website and their dedicated concert page on Facebook.
Today, Jesus Church is still an active parish with church services, baptisms, weddings and lectures, but also evening classes, FDF and concerts in the parish hall a little further down the road.
In short, it is both a local church, an architectural experience and a vibrant cultural centre on Valby Bakke.
