I first saw kalkmalerier, chalk-painted church frescoes, on Bornholm, a Danish isle in the Baltic Sea (south of Sweden and north of Poland) in 2023. The Østerlars round church had some frescoes from the 1100s and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. They all had a comic “Sunday Funnies” sort of vibe and illustrated sometimes brutal, violent scenarios in a light, whimsical way. igh art. I soon learned that there were 600 churches across Denmark adorned with kalkmalerier and I needed to see as many as possible during our 3 weeks across the 3 peninsulas of the kingdom, which is about the size of Colorado.

The frescoes date back to the 1100s and were created through the 1600s — but they were covered up after the reformation with lime wash and were hidden until they were discovered and restored in the late 1800s. After 14th century were in more of a gothic style.

That first trip in 2023 we saw kalkmalerier across the 3 of the 4 round churches on Bornholm (Østerlars, Olsker, Nylars), then the Lygby church north of Copenhagen, then the Bellinge church near Odense on Fyn. When we went back in 2024 (my girlfriend is Danish), we visited the Aarhus Cathedral and traveled south of Copenhagen to the isle of Møn to see the most famous and possibly best examples of kalmalerier. These frescoes were created by the anonymous “Elmelunde Master” in the late 1400s/early 1500s across 3 churches on the island (Elmelunde, Keldby, Fanefjord). This guy was kind of an early Warhol, replicating work across the different places of worship, with some sick, violent variations. We will be visiting DK again this summer and will be seeking out new and wild kalkmalerier examples once again.

Swipe for photos (apologies that the captions with locations are basically impossible to read):