Birgittes kapel i Roskilde Domkirke: - gravplads i 1000 år

Nationalmuseets Arbejdsmark 2014. The St. Birgitta Chapel in Roskilde Cathedral – burial site for 1000 years In the summer of 2013 the church archaeologists of the National Museum excavated an area of 10 m2 in the St. Birgitta Chapel in Roskilde Cathedral. The reason for the archaeological investigation was that a sepulchral monument and crypt are to be built for Queen Margrethe II and Prince Henrik in the chapel. Roskilde Cathedral is on the UNESCO list of world heritage and the archaeological investigation was conducted in close collaboration with the cathedral staff, who were responsible for the ongoing press coverage and the many visitors. The present cathedral had a predecessor of tufa built by Bishop Sven Nordmand in the 1080s (fig.1). At the end of the 1100s and on through the 1200s the present brick church was built, and in the 1400s the St. Birgitta Chapel was added on the north side of the cathedral as a sepulchral chapel for Bishop Oluf Mortensen. In the 1600s three of King Christian IV’s children were buried in a crypt in the chapel, which will not be affected by the new crypt. Besides 40 graves from the 11th-17th centuries, the excavation also revealed information about the monastery that lay in the 11th century on the north side of Sven Nordmand’s church (fig.3). Bishop Oluf Mortensen’s grave was not found; it was probably destroyed by the later graves. There were no traces of activities at the spot before the burial site was established in the 11th century, an observation also made earlier in archaeological excavations outside the church. Co-author David Høyer