Votive Ship: Tiny Ships in Big Churches!

A votive ship is like a miniature boat that sits inside a church. It's not for sailing on water, but for looking at! People who work with ships, like sailors and builders, often give these models as special presents to churches.

They are like thank you gifts for safe journeys or for surviving a storm. You can find them in churches in countries like Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, and even in places like the Faroe Islands. They are a beautiful way to remember the sea inside a building!

The idea of putting model ships in churches is super old, going all the way back to the Middle Ages. That's like hundreds and hundreds of years ago, even before your grandparents' grandparents were born! People all over Christian Europe used to do this.

The oldest votive ship we know about is from Spain and is from the 1400s. That's older than many castles! In the Nordic countries, the oldest one is from around 1590, which is still very, very old.

These little ships are important because they connect people to the sea and to their faith. For sailors, the sea can be a powerful and sometimes scary place. Putting a model ship in a church was a way to ask for protection or to give thanks for being safe.

It's like saying, 'Thank you for keeping me safe on my adventures!' They also show how much people cared about their jobs and their beliefs, and they make churches look really interesting and unique.

Sometimes, people would make a vow, which is like a special promise, to give a ship model if they were saved from danger at sea. This is why they are called 'votive' ships, meaning they are given after a vow. In some places, like France, people would make paintings of ships in tricky situations instead of models.

These are called 'Ex-Voto', meaning 'from a vow'. It's a way of showing gratitude for surviving a shipwreck or a really bad storm.