The Magnus Cathedral – Trap The Faroe Islands

© Styrelsen for Dataforsyning og Infrastruktur

For a long time, it was believed that the Magnus Cathedral had never been completed and that the unfinished building fell into ruin. However, recent investigations indicate that the church construction was completed, that the church had a roof, doors and windows and was consecrated as a cathedral, and that it was in use until the Reformation and then fell into disrepair. ÓLAVUR FREDERIKSEN, 2020

The current parish church served as the country’s cathedral until the end of the 13th century, when the construction of a new, larger and far more richly ornamented cathedral in Gothic style started. It is today the ruin that goes by the name Magnus Cathedral.

The building measures 26.5 x 10.75 m. Characteristic of the church are the tall, slender and pointed arched window openings on the south side as well as the large window opening in the eastern end wall. In the easternmost part of the north wall is a 9.8 x 5.6 m side wing called Nunnukleystrið. It was presumably a chapel with a wide window opening to the east and a rose window to the west, and whose room was covered by a cross vault. In the floor below the east window, the foundations for an altar have been uncovered. The church originally had a tower in the west, from which there was an opening into the large church room through a 7 m high and 2 m wide arcade arch. The church was planned with six cross vaults, and it is uncertain whether these were in fact completed or whether another solution was found, such as a timber vault or a ceiling.

The Magnus Cathedral got its name from a reliquary tablet on the outside of the east side of the cathedral. The walled-in tablet of soapstone measures 65 x 63 cm and is decorated with a beautiful relief of Christ on the cross surrounded by Mary and Magdalene under three arches. Along the edge of the tablet is a Latin inscription, which states that it hides relics of Iceland’s saint-bishop Thorlacius and of the Orkneys’ saint, earl Magnus. The relics are kept in a lead box with a lid in the wall behind the tablet. Art historically, the tablet dates back to the first third of the 14th century.

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