Omø Church

A stone tablet on the southern wall of the church states that it was King Frederic the II who gave his vassal Eiler Krafse of Tornborg at Korsør an order to build a church in Omø and engage a vicar in 1536.

The islanders had no church during the Catholic period and had to travel to Skælskør for church ceremonies. There was a chapel by the Skælskør church for the use of the parishioners living in Omø.

The first church wasn´t much more than a chapel without a bell tower. It was built of tree and stood only about 25 years until 1601 when it was replaced by a half-timbered one. The only thing that remains of this second church is an intertie that is hanging in the porch over the church door . The church didn´t have a tower but later on a small wooden belltower was erected in the churchyard.

The half-timbered church stood about 200 years but became eventually dilapidated. In written documents from 1739 it is mentioned being ’in very bad shape, like an abandoned house’. In 1744 the ’draught was so severe’ that the vicar had trouble standing up in the pulpit. During the wars of 1801- 1814 the church and cemetery were turned into a fortification and accounts from that time tell of the church being so worn down that a new church is urgently needed.

The third and present church was built by the Skælskør merchant Harboe in 1828 for the Skælskør Parish. It has a nave and a westvard tower and it is built of small yellow bricks on a slightly protruding foundation which consists partly of fieldstones. The entry to the church is on the west side of the belltower which is also the church porch. The windows have arched iron frames, and the flat ceiling is made of logs. The church is white-washed and the originally pink foundation is now painted black. The church was restored as early as 1851.

The altar made of oak dates probably back to 1576 and was rebuilt in 1828. The altarpiece is painted by Tony Møller in 1911. There is an old triptych from 1522, which can be seen today in the National Museum of Denmark. (There is a photograph of the triptych in the porch). The silver paten and chalice from 1576 which still survives, belonged to the first wooden church of Omø.