Vejle in Denmark: City of Art and Architecture, Vejle, Denmark

Vejle is proud of its museums and especially Kunst Museum, its Art Museum which offers a different look at the world around us and showcases Danish excellence in design.

Art in Vejle is not confined within the walls of a museum, it is on the streets and adorns its building many of which are architecturally significant. The town, in the centre of an area known as The Triangle in the Jutland region is easily accessible by train and public bus. Its travel interchange is a good place to start an exploration of the town. Dominating the square outside the train and bus station is the Ladder to Heaven - Jacob’s Dream (Himmelstigen - Jacobs drøm)

A towering sculpture, the Ladder to Heaven - Jacob’s Dream, was placed here to mark the opening of the new railway station in 1999. This tall granite stele (a vertical stone inscribed with writing) was created by Bjørn Nørgaard. Imagery on the stele varies from ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs to modern interpretations of travel. Not far from the station is the oldest building in Vejle, the church of Saint Nicolai.

There has been a church on Kirketorvet since the Middle Ages but only a very small section of that original church can be seen today. The architectural style of the original church was late Romanesque but renovations during the fifteenth century created a Gothic hall with two transepts. It was badly damaged during the Thirty Years’ War and the chancel and tower date back to the seventeenth century. Since then, it has undergone major restorations during the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This redbrick Lutheran church is dedicated to Nikolaos of Myra, the patron saint of children and seafarers. On the northern wall there are twenty-three holes each containing a walled-in human skull. The true origin of these skulls is not known but, according to legend, they are either the skulls of twenty-three robbers or Polish soldiers captured during the Thirty Years’ War. On one side the church is graced by a statue of Anders Sørensen Vedel. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).