Råbjerg church / Råbjerg kirke, Horns herred, Hjørring amt.

Råbjerg Church, ab. 22 km northwest of Frederikshavn
Råbjerg sogn, Horns herred, Hjørring amt.



The church yard

Råbjerg church is the northernest medieval church in Denmark which is still in use. It is marked by repeated repairs and rebuilt in the 1600s and 1700s, caused by the pest of the area, the sand drift. The oldest sections, the choir and the eastern part of the nave are in bricks, but later extended in half-timbering. The church has a lonely place in the extensive heaths.

Inside is a beamed ceiling. The altar piece is a painting from 1897 in a contemporary frame. During the restoration in 1931 was found a reliquary in the communion table, a lead capsule with bone splinters. Some late Gothic figures from the church's medieval altar piece, which since 1865 was at Gårdbogård, are now back; they hang upon the north wall of the nave. The chalice has the year 1621. Upon the communion table two ore candelabres, according to inscription given in 1668 by Morten Sørensen and Maren Pedersdatter. A Romanesque granite font. Newer pulpit from the end of the 1800s carved in Renaissance-style. Above the choir arch hangs a small medieval metal-crucifix . In the bell gable south of the church an early medieval bell.


Heaths Råbjerg Stene west of the church
Råbjerg Mile in the distance

Names in the Middle Ages and 1600s:
Råbjerg ( 1408 Rabergh, 1419 Robergh); Bunken (1662 Bunchen); Heden (Heeden 1662); Lodskovvad (1611 Lodtskouwadt); Klitlund ( 1662 Kletlund); Hvidemose( 1662 Hiuidemos); Kyllesbæk ( * 1479 Kiøllisbeck); Uggerholt ( 1577 Urhal, 1662 Vggerhal); Hjortlund( 1662 Hiortlund); Sovkrog) 1577 Skovkrog, 1688 Sau Krog); Lyngshede ( 1662 Løngshee); Hvims (1662 Huimbs); Høgenhave (1484 Høgenhaff); Jennet (1577 Et, 1662 Jenned); Knasborg ( 1662 Knasborig); Sørig (* 1479 Sørickshoffuit); Gårdbogård ( 1335 Garthbuth, 1419 Garbode); Troldborg (1558 Troldbierig); Skødelund ( 1484 Skøwelwndh); Løt (1688 Løtt).

In the southeastern part of the parish, east of the now dried-out Gårdbo sø, was originally in the Middle Ages Gårdbogård, its owner was in 1335 ridder Henrik Nielsen Panter (+ earliest 1345), who exchanged his estate in Gårdbo to Vrejlev kloster; in Vrejlev kloster's archive (later at Aalborghus) was in 1573 32 parchment-letters ab. the farm and Gårdbo Sø (Lake). It seems that Gårdbogård stayed in the ownership of the kloster until the reformation when it came to the Crown. Various owners up til present. Families Rønnow, Skeel, Bille, Rud etc.

Source: Trap Danmark, Hjørring amt, 1960; Niels Peter Stilling, Danmarks kirker, 2000.


Råbjerg May 2008: grethe bachmann