Danish husband-wife architect team Inger and Johannes Exner´s distinctive red-brick church is a powerful modern take on Romanesque church architecture with a striking interior with 803 free hanging lightbulbs.
Inger and Johannes Exner specialized in church architecture. Since 1958 when they started their joint architectural office they have created over 14 churches and devised a large number of restorations, most famously the restoration of the castle Koldinghus.
Sædden Church (1971-1978) was their 9th church and the most Lutheran and reformed.
It is located in the Esbjerg suburb of Sædding. The church is connected to a shopping mall which today seems odd. But this was quite common in the era, where there was a desire to make the church more a part of everyday life.
The redbrick castle-like exterior is reminiscent of the Cathedral of Alba with its monumental slanted and straight masonry but with a much starker, more intense and primal expression
The large cubistic interior with its central white marble alter contrasting the austere redbrick walls columns and floor. Lightboxes in the ceiling and 6 columns in two of the walls brings the only daylight into the room from above. Suspended from the ceiling 803 individual lightbulbs create an amazing heavenly stellar light effect.
The church is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 09:00 – 13:00
