Skørping church / Skørping kirke, Hellum herred, Aalborg amt.

Skørping Church, 15 km south of Aalborg
Skørping sogn, Hellum herred, Aalborg amt.

The church in Skørping is situated in a parish with some of the most beautiful landscapes in Denmark, among this Rebild Bakker and Store Blåkilde. It has a Romanesque choir and nave with extensions from the late Gothic period, a tower to the west, a porch to the north and a chapel to the south. The Romanesque building is in granite ashlars. The north door is preserved and in use. Its cover stone is decorated with an archade frieze like in Gerding Church . Also the south door's cross-decorated thympanum is preserved. From the original windows is one at the north side of the choir - and a monolit cover-stone is walled in the chapel.

Inside the choir is preserved with profiled kragsten, and the nave has a beamed ceiling, while the choir in the late Gothic period got a cross-vault. From the late Gothic period is also the bottom part of the tower with re-used ashlars and monk bricks. Its cross-vaulted bottom room opens in a pointed arch to the nave. The top of the tower is built or strongly rebuilt in 1760, and the pyramid-spire is re-newed in 1928. The large cross-vaulted south chapel is connected to the nave in a pointed archade, and its frescoe-painted inauguration-cross shows that it must be from the Catholic period.




A foundation of an altar piece, which was uncovered in the chapel in 1951, is reasonably not connected to the Helligkorsalter (an altarpiece) which queen Margrethe I gave for a weekly Friday service. In 1951 late Gothic frescoes were uncovered in the south wall of the nave, they were restored by E.Lind. The altarpiece is from ab. 1600. Romanesque granite font with a smooth basin. Pulpit from the beginning of the 1600s with modern ornaments. Chandelier from 1727, given by Eva and Lauritz Schyom. Church ship, a modern model of the frigate "Jylland." Church bell from 1757, cast by Pieter Seest, Amsterdam, for Pieter Lange von Bergen.

Inside the dike of the churchyard is a sacred spring Helligkorskilden, which according to a document was discovered by vicar Erik Mortensen Kjær, + 1699. After an outcleaning coins from the Middle Ages were found in the spring, fx Rostockerpenninge from 1460-70. The spring was re-opened in 1924 on the initiative of Aalborg Amt's Historiske Samfund.

Egholm Voldsted
Store Blåkilde

Names in the Middle Ages:
Skørping ( * 1422 Skierping, Skiørping, 1461 Skyrpinth); Skindbjerg (1477 Skindberg); Rebild (1472 Ræbild); Ottruphuse (1477 Wbbedrop); Rebild Skovhuse ( * ab. 1490 Rebildt schoff); Teglgaard (1579 Thegelgaard); Legensgård (* 1463? Legims marc, * 1468 Legensmarck).

Teglgård (* 1549 Terstedt). After the reformation the herredsfogeder (district-bailiffs) in Hellum lived at Teglgård which belonged to the Crown, who 1663 endowed it to Mogens Friis of Vadskærgård, who sold it to Mogens Jensen ( former ridefoged at Aalborghus) whose widow Karen Christensdatter, + 1682, had it after him. Various owners/families: Lauridsen, Lange, Wulf, Bjørn etc. In 1944 it was sold to A.H.Fenger. (1961).

Egholm slotsruin/Slottet Egholm (Castle) (*1372 Egholm, Yegholm, 1391 Ekholm castrum) was sold by Hartvig Pogwisch 1372 to hr. Peder Iversen Lykke, whose son hr. Iver Lykke in 1374 sold it to Valdemar Atterdag. In 1391 queen Margrethe gave Egholm to Vor Frue Kloster in Aalborg, the building had to be demolished and the materials were used for a renovation of Vor Frue Kloster.

The listed Egholm voldsted (motte) is situated close to Lindenborg Aa/river in a meadow area which was under water in the castle period. There are several traces of the castle in the area. Egholm is Himmerland's most important memorial from the Middle ages.

In the meadow of Skørping Vicarage, about 200 m south of Egholm is a circular motte covered by a peat layer, which when cultivated sinks and reveals the form of a motte. Traces of fortifications surround the castle plan on three sides while the western side was protected by the water stream and the swamp. Palisades and thimber come up when the area is cultivated.


Rebild Bakker

Listed prehistorics:The parish is extremely rich in prehistorics and most of them are preserved: Two dolmen chambers in Bjergeskov and Skørpinglund, a stone cist at Rebild and two in Sønderskov, two longhills and 161 hills: impressive are Fruerhøj at Skindbjerg, a hill on the land of Skørping Vicarage and Sortehøj and Limovnen at Rebild. Especially Nørreskov, Skørpinglund and Mosskov are rich in hills and there are also many hills north of Rebild.
Demolished or destroyed: At the sanatorium a dolmen, here were found a battle axe, a claypot and 2 amber pearls; furthermore 49 hills. In a moor at Rebild Skovhuse was found a femal wooden figure, probably from Iron Age.

Source: Trap Danmark, Aalborg amt, 1961.


photo Skørping kirke , St. Blåkilde, Egholm, Rebild 2003, 2004, 2007: grethe bachmann