Østerlars Church (Østerlars Rundkirke)

A round white fortress in the Bornholm countryside

Østerlars Church rises from the rolling landscape of Bornholm like a whitewashed stone drum, capped with a dark conical roof and encircled by a quiet graveyard. Built around the mid‑1100s and dedicated to St Lawrence, it is the largest and probably the oldest of the island’s four medieval round churches. Its unusual circular plan immediately reads more like a compact fortress than a typical village church. The structure is Romanesque at heart: thick fieldstone walls resting on local limestone foundations, small original window openings later enlarged, and sturdy buttresses added in the 16th century to brace the outer wall. A separate, squat bell tower in the churchyard once served as a gate tower, underlining the building’s defensive purpose when seaborne threats loomed across the Baltic.

Defensive design and mysterious central column

Step inside and the building’s military logic becomes clear. The large round nave, about sixteen metres across, is wrapped around a massive hollow central pillar sometimes called “the oven.” Higher levels once functioned as galleries and, in the top storey, as an open shooting platform where defenders could observe and, if needed, repel attackers. Narrow stairways are built into the thickness of the walls, leading to upper floors that reveal the layered construction of the church from within. The circular circulation, heavy stonework and dim light give a strong sense of enclosure, as if the architecture were designed as much for siege as for sermon.

Medieval frescoes and carved church treasures

The central pillar is encircled by 14th‑century frescoes that read almost like a painted storyboard of the Christian narrative. Beginning with the Annunciation and birth of Christ, the scenes move through key episodes of his life and Passion, ending in a vivid Last Judgment where Christ weighs souls and the damned tumble toward a dragon‑like hellmouth. These murals were limewashed over after the Reformation and only rediscovered and restored in the late 19th and 20th centuries, so their colours and details feel surprisingly fresh. Around them, later furnishings chart changing tastes: a late‑16th‑century pulpit with carved panels, a richly ornamented altarpiece from around 1600, and more recent fittings that allow the church to function as a living parish rather than a static monument.

Runestones and traces of earlier faiths

In the porch and churchyard you can see rune stones carved centuries before the church itself. One stone dating from the late Viking age stands outside, while another, slightly later, is incorporated inside the building. Their intertwined animal motifs and runic inscriptions hint at a society in transition from Norse belief to Christianity. Together with the round plan, these stones feed enduring speculation about the site’s deeper past. Some theories link Bornholm’s round churches with the Knights Templar or with medieval observatories, though no firm evidence confirms these ideas. What is certain is that Østerlars occupies a strategic position in the landscape and anchors a long continuum of sacred and symbolic use.

Experiencing Østerlars today

Today the church still hosts regular services and ceremonies, while welcoming visitors during posted opening hours. There is usually a small entrance fee for sightseeing, which helps support maintenance of the medieval fabric and frescoes. In quieter moments you may hear only the creak of the timber roof above and the muffled sounds of the wind outside, lending the interior an almost monastic calm. A walk around the churchyard reveals carefully tended graves, stone paths and views across surrounding fields that underline how rural Bornholm still feels. Climbing to the upper levels, where permitted, offers close‑up views of the roof structure and glimpses out over the landscape, connecting the church’s fortified past with its present role as one of Denmark’s most distinctive historic churches.