Chapter 6 Tracing the Jerusalem Code in Christiansfeld: A World Heritage City

Abstract

In 2015 the Moravian settlement of Christiansfeld in Denmark was included in UNESCO’s World Heritage List for its Outstanding Universal Values relating to the town plan, the exquisite architecture, and the functional distribution of the buildings. The town was viewed as an “ideal protestant city,” and a realization of the vision of the Christian societal structure according to the ideals of the Moravian Church. The World Heritage nomination file explores what an “ideal protestant town” is without mentioning the notion of “the heavenly Jerusalem,” an underlying image that was crucial to the Moravians. This chapter argues that a “Jerusalem code” may constitute a hermeneutical key to interpreting the town of Christiansfeld.