Mårup Church, Lønstrup

Nordjylland, Lønstrup · Dänemark · Cemetery

The sea is gnawing into the cliff where 226 drowned sailors lie in a mass grave — walkers already find bones the grave has lost to the water.

On the cliff at Lønstrup lies a mass grave the sea is prising open. On 5 December 1808 the English frigate The Crescent ran aground off Mårup in a full gale; rescue attempts failed again and again, and over 200 people drowned in the surf below the church. The dead were laid in a common grave in Mårup churchyard, and the ship's anchor still stands on the site as a memorial. Since then the North Sea has eaten into the cliff metre by metre. The church itself had to be dismantled, but the churchyard remains on the falling edge, and walkers may come across bones the grave has already lost to the sea. It is one of Denmark's most exposed places of death: a patch of grass in the wind where the ground beneath the buried slides slowly straight down into the water that took them.

FAQ

Wo befindet sich Mårup Church, Lønstrup?

Mårup Church, Lønstrup liegt in Nordjylland, Lønstrup, Dänemark.