A village built around two churches

Stand at the eastern edge of Østermarie and you'll see the village's signature sight: two churches a few metres apart, a century and many centuries of history between them. The larger, intact building is Østermarie Kirke, consecrated on 18 October 1891. It was raised in dark local "Paradis" granite in a confident Romanesque-revival style, designed by architect Andreas Clemmensen, who also worked on today's Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen. Built as a cruciform church with tower, nave, chancel, apsis and two cross-arms, it could originally seat around a thousand people.↗↗

Just south of it lies the ruin of the church that came before, a solid Romanesque building raised around 1200–1225 from fieldstone and lime. By 1885 its tower was so decayed that the parish decided to demolish the whole structure and start again. The wreckers stopped in 1890, however, when they uncovered something unexpectedly precious: an unusually rare roof in which the vaulting itself was built of masonry, and a clever relief chamber above the chancel vault that takes some 20 tonnes of weight off the roof. Stone-built roofs of this kind are almost unknown in Scandinavia. The demolition was called off, a brand-new church was erected beside it, and the ruin survived — today it is a listed monument cared for by the National Museum of Denmark.↗↗

There's a piece of literary history here too: the author Martin Andersen Nexø, later famous for the novel *Pelle the Conqueror*, was among the labourers who worked on the new church's construction.↗

A pleasant local tradition adds colour to the village itself. Each year the KulturBornholm association, based in Østermarie, chooses an Artist of Honour and names a street after them — past tributes have celebrated the Irish Nobel poet Seamus Heaney, the Danish songwriter Benny Andersen and the Wagner bass Aage Haugland.↗

The runestones of the graveyard

The real reason the churchyard draws history lovers is the cluster of runestones. Four early-medieval stones, dated to roughly 1075–1125 — the bridge between the Viking Era and the Middle Ages — stand between the old ruin and the new church. They had been found reused as building material in the medieval walls, which is why they survived so well, and several carry touching Christian memorial inscriptions raised by grieving siblings for a brother or father.↗

Among them, the largest is known locally as the Threshold Stone because it once lay as a doorstep in the ruin's porch; a second was recovered from inside the old church tower; and one bears a carved propeller-shaped cross on its reverse, the only example of its kind known in Denmark. Bornholm as a whole preserves some of the densest concentration of runestones in the country relative to its size, and the graveyard here is often described as one of the best places on the island to see them together.↗↗

The village and a place to pause

Beyond the church, Østermarie is a quietly attractive settlement — a sprawl of small cottages across fertile farmland, the largest parish on Bornholm by area, where locally grown produce can often be bought straight from the source. Hallegård's farm butchery, for instance, sells its own sausages and meats, and the surrounding countryside is dotted with fields and market gardens that supply the island's kitchens.↗↗

A favourite stop in its own right is Fru Petersens Café, set in a beautifully restored half-timbered building on Almindingenvej. Housed in a former church school from 1908 and decorated in white and blue with antique furniture and old photographs, it has welcomed visitors since 1997 and is renowned for a homemade cake buffet baked to traditional recipes — a warm, nostalgic place to linger after a walk.↗

Out into the wider island

Østermarie's location in central-eastern Bornholm makes it a convenient hub for exploring. The pretty harbour towns of Svaneke, with its well-kept half-timbered houses, and Gudhjem, with its steep lanes tumbling down to the sea, are both around a 15-minute drive away. The Baltic coastline and the island's smaller rivers and lakes lie only a few kilometres off, and the network of well-marked cycling routes — the region alone has some 250 km — threads the village into the rest of Bornholm.↗↗

To the southwest lie the sweeping pines of Almindingen, Bornholm's largest continuous forest, topped by Rytterknægten, the island's highest point with a popular lookout tower. On the forest's edge you'll find Ekkodalen, the Echo Valley, a dramatic rift valley with steep rock walls up to 20 metres high where a shout carries back as a clear echo. Archaeology enthusiasts can also visit Luisenlund, the island's biggest collection of standing stones, while the Bornholm Medieval Centre lets you step into a recreation of 12th-century life — a fitting companion to the ruin in Østermarie itself.↗↗