Saint Clement’s Church

Prior to the Metro excavation, archaeologists were already aware that the founds of Saint Clement’s Church lay beneath Strøget shopping street in Frederiksberggade, quite close to Town Hall Square. The church was built using large bricks, a building style that came to Denmark in the mid-1100s. It’s first mentioned in written sources in 1192, but was demolished during the Reformation – 1534-36. Part of the cemetery was excavated in 2008 when the overlying building was demolished to make room for a new structure. Here archaeologists found a coin artefact from the late 900s. Archaeologists believe it was in use until the late 1000s. If it’s true there were two churches in Viking Age Copenhagen, this would suggest a period with several chieftains who had control of trading in their respective parts of the Øresund strait, because only a king or ruling family could commission church buildings.