Grønning church / Grønning kirke, Nørre herred, Viborg amt.

Grønning church, Salling, 10 km north of Skive
Grønning sogn, Nørre herred, Viborg amt.

Grønning church from the 1100s is placed east of Grønning village upon a south-facing slope. Nave, chorus and apse are Romanesque, built in granite ashlars, the southern porch and the western tower are late Gothic. The porch is built in monk bricks and the tower in granite ashlars and monk bricks. Original windows on the northern walls , one in nave and one in chorus, both walled in - plus another original window in apse. The south portal is preserved with two pillars (one disappeared), here is a tympanon with a big lion figure in flat relief. The north portal is almost gone. Its thympanum is used as a step stone outside the porch.

The choir and nave have beamed ceilings. A pointed arch connects the nave with the vaulted tower room. Grønning church has no altar piece, but the altar is arranged in a niche by the apse probably in the late 1700s. The wall in the niche is decorated with the name Jahve in Hebrew letters performed in stucco above a burning urn. The simple pulpit is Renaissance from 1605.

The granite font consists of more than one part. It was disfigured because of a cut up in the 1800s and therefore equipped with a new basin in 1964. The bottom part is sandstone with four strongly protruding heads (one head disfigured by the cut up) and three small figures, carved by the Gotland mason master Hegvald ab. 1150.


Thympanum, lion figure in flat relief


The south portal in the porch


Stairs behind the church lead down to a lovely place.

Names in the Middle Ages and 1600s:
Grønning (1466 Grøning); Vester Grønning (*1403 Vester Grønning); Øster Grønning (1452 Øster Grønynghe); Grønninggård (1610 Grøniggrdt); Grønris (1610 Grønrisz); Tordal (1524 Twornndal); Filshave (*1483-85 Filszhafue).

Filshave was ab. 1484 and 1488 owned by Niels Eskildsen Høeg (Banner) (+ 1512). In 1492 his father Eskild Nielsen Høeg (Banner) and his co-heirs were judged for the second time to give Filshave, 2 farms in Grønning and 7 bol (small farms) in Øster Grønning to hr. Predbjørn Podebusk, but also in the following years Niels Eskildsen is written to the farm; in 1506 he was judged for the 3. time to give his rights in F. to his cousin hr. Niels Høeg (Banner) of Eskær, but in various ways he avoided to follow this judgment too. His widow Kirsten Jensdatter Viffert is written to F. in 1512; the daughter Kirsten Nielsdatter Høeg (Banner) married the ufri (adscript) Mads Jensen, whose descendants took the name Skade and were considered nobility. In 1517 F. was again judged to belong to Niels Høeg (Banner), first in 1521 the farm was left, but still in 1524 fru Kirsten of Filshave is mentioned. In 1546 Niels Høeg again got Filshave by law, and in 1557 Johanne Rotfeld of Eskær was given F. via the king by law.

At Grønninggård lived in 1521 Nis Jensen, the above mentioned Mads Jensen's family. It belonged probably to Filshave and came with this to hr. Niels Høeg (Banner) of Eskær. His daughter's daughter Kirsten Nielsdatter Rotfeld (+ 1576) gave it to her sister's daughter Kirsten Bjørnsdatter Kaas (Sparre-K.) Later it probably came to Eskær.

Ustrupgård was in 1513 conveyed by Niels Eskildsen Høeg (Banner) to the bishop in Viborg, soon after it came under Stubberkloster and then under Astrup, from where it was sold. Broken down in 1875.

Listed prehistorics: 7 hills, of which the large Akselhøj at Øster Grønning and a large hill in the garden of Grønris.
Demolished or destroyed: 41 hills, mainly placed in the eastern part of the parish.

Source: Trap Danmark, Viborg amt, 1962


photo Grønning kirke april 2004: grethe bachmann