210-Year-Old Danish Church To Reopen This Week

Serampore:  The 210-year-old St Olav's Church in the former Danish colony of West Bengal's Serampore town will reopen this week after being restored with funds from the Denmark government.

The church at Serampore in Hooghly district — locally known as ‘Danish church’ — is one of the over 100 buildings constructed between 1755 and 1845 when Serampore was under Danish management and known as Frederiksnagore.

Father Terence Ireland, who was involved in the restoration project, said: “On April 16, there will be a small ceremony after which it will be opened for regular service.”

The roof of the church, which collapsed in 2010, was restored after the Danish Ministry of Culture generously donated funds to restore the piece of architecture.

According to the National Museum of Denmark (NMD), Ole Bie, the then head of the Danish trading port in Serampore, launched in 1800 the construction of St. Olav's Church, which has a royal monogram of Danish King Christian VII on its front. The restoration work began in 2013 and following the Rs 3 crore restoration, the church property is now ready to be reopened to the public later this week, Bishop Ashoke Biswas said.

Conservation architect Manish Chakraborti from Kolkata and Dr Flemming Aalund from the National Museum of Denmark got together to design the restoration plan by using traditional materials and techniques.
The original doors, windows and furniture were restored while flooring was re-laid with sandstone from Rajasthan. Lime mortars and organic pigments were used on all walls, following the original color scheme established through a scientific paint analysis, said Dr Bente Wolff of the National Museum of Denmark.

In collaboration with NMD's Serampore Initiative, Serampore College and architectural firm Continuity, extensive restoration work was carried out to reclaim the church's past glory.