Frederiks church / Frederiks kirke, Lysgård herred , Viborg amt.

Frederiks Church, 17 km southwest of Viborg
Frederiks sogn, Lysgård herred, Viborg amt.

The church was built in 1766 as a longhouse, in 1866 it was equipped with a roof gable to the west with a bricked-up bell gallow and a porch. The building is white washed with iron windows, red tiled roofs and a plaster loft between the beams.
The communion table is walled. A Baroque altar piece with free pillars between postament- and friezes and with top-consols with the year 1766 and a restoration in 1930. Altar candelabres 1766. New altar rails. A monstrous granite baptismal font replaced in 1949 the earlier zink-font. A pewter baptismal bowl and jar from 1758. A simple pulpit from 1766 with a contemparory entrance and sounding board. Pews from the end of the 1800s. A small iron bound money coffin (like in Sjørslev Church). The church yard is marked by German family names .



Names in the Middle Ages: Årestrup (* 1414 Aarestrup).

The real Alhede (the old Jutland Heath) is in the parishes Frederiks, Karup, Resen and in some of Thorning parish, even though the name also is used about the large heaths on both sides of Karup Aa, and about the large heaths in Haderup and Groue parish in Ringkøbing amt. In 1759 the Danish government sent for about 1000 people (265 families) from the areas around Rhinen and Main, to cultivate Alheden. After the heather was burnt, buckwheat was sowed first, later rye and then potatoes. The situation was difficult for the families in general, and many went back to Germany. In 1768 were only 49 families left (241 people), living in the towns Havredal and Grønhøj. With economic support from the Danish State they succeeded in taking care of themselves. They grew famous for their potatoes and were named Kartoffeltyskerne. The church language in the parish was German until 1856 and since 1870 only Danish. The colonists became independent since 1852, and many were fairly wealthy people; they gave up the German language and became an integrated part of the population.

Listed prehistorics: 57 hills, and the long dolmen Jens Langknivs Hule in Ulvedal plantage; the dolmen is 34 m long and has two chambers and 66 edge stones, it contained a flint dagger and a heavy bronze bracelet. A couple of the hills are rather large: Store Ståhøj, the most southern of the group in Havredal Plantage, and Tinghøj south of Årestrup. In Havredal Plantage is a long group of 32 hills, mainly single grave hills from Stone Age.
Demolished or destroyed: 58 hills, of which a large part was stretching from Skelhøje through Lysgård parish to the mentioned group in Havredal Plantage; many are excavated and they mainly contained single graves from Stone Age.

Source: Trap Danmark, Viborg amt, 1962


photo Frederiks kirke 2003: grethe bachmann