C. G. Schultz

Abstract

C. G. SCHULTZ

29th August 1905- 17th July 1958 

The bells of Asmild church tolled out across Viborg Lake, in the hour that C. G. Schultz was laid to rest in the capital - far from that Jutland to which he had devoted so much of his life. The ancient monuments of Jutland occupied him more and more in his later years, and the list of his discoveries there is impressive: Asmild's remarkable plan with its east and west chancels, the fortress construction around Malling church, the crypt under Our Lady's in Aarhus, the ring-forts at Aggersborg and Fyrkat, the model ship at Hvilsager, the rune stone at Asmild, the baluster pillar at Vitskøl and much more. With untiring zeal he investigated discoveries great and small, and incorporated them in our knowledge of Jutland's early history.

From the architect school of the Academy C. G. Schultz came as pupil to C. M. Smidt, the restoration architect of the National Museum, and on the latter's retirement C. G. Schultz was an obvious choice as his successor. But long before this Schultz had made his reputation as a masterly archeologist and a telling and clearsighted writer. He ranged widely, but the culture of his native land around the year AD 1000 became the central point of his research. Our knowledge today of our oldest cathedrals is primarily due to him, and in recreating the pimpstone crypt under Our Lady's he gave us literally an insight into a building tradition which none knew better than he. He loved to work in the old material, he admired the ancient craftsmanship, and he could himself, if it was called for, shape a pimpstone block.

We who now must look in vain for the publications which we might have expected from his pen may comfort ourselves with the fact that he left this work in stone completed. The Jutland Archeological Society has decided to set a tablet to his memory in this crypt. No better place could have been chosen.

Harald Langberg.