Løgumkloster Church is first and foremost a large medieval brick-built space. The cruciform church and the preserved east wing make the place more than a church from the outside: here, monastic life can be read in the building itself. Look for the night staircase from the monks’ dormitory, the processional door toward the monastery, and the lay brothers’ door in the west gable.
In monastic times, the church interior was not one shared space for everyone. The monks used the eastern part, while the lay brothers had access to the western part. The preserved east wing contains the chapter house and the dormitory, the monks’ dormitory, and gives a rare physical sense of the monastery’s daily order.
Construction began in the east by the high altar and ended in the west. That is why round-arched Romanesque windows and pointed Gothic windows meet in the same complex. The materials also point out into the landscape: monastic bricks made of clay from Løgumbjerge, a foundation of local fieldstones, and lime burned from seashells from the Wadden Sea.
Inside the church there are medieval furnishings, frescoes, choir stalls and later additions, which give the space many layers without breaking its strict Cistercian character. The church is still used as a parish church, so church services and other religious ceremonies may mean temporary closure.
