Rødding church / Rødding kirke and Spøttrup, Rødding herred, Viborg amt.

Rødding Church, ab. 18 km northwest of Skive
Rødding sogn, Rødding herred, Viborg amt.


The choir and the nave is Romanesque with a late Gothic tower and a porch and sacristy from the 1500s. The Romanesque building is in granite boulders and both doors are preserved. There is an original window in the eastern gable of the choir. The choir and the nave were barrel-vaulted in the Renaissance period. The late Gothic tower is built in re-used granite ashlars and monk bricks and has an octagonal cross-vault in the bottom room. The cross-arm in granite ashlars and monk bricks has a bricked-up flat curved door to the west. Inside has it an octagonal rib-vault, which opens to the nave in a round-arched arcade. The octagonal pyramid spire was first shingled, but now covered with aluminium after a lightning in 1961. The chapel was built in the end of the 1500s as a chapel for the family Below.

The granite altar piece is special. Its heavy plate rests upon four pillars of which one is shaped as a kneeling human figure. This is now in the National Museum together with a granite aspersorium. From another earlier altar piece is an ashlar with a reliquary walled on the eastern wall of the choir. An early Gothic side-altar figure, a very slim bishop saint from ab. 1300-1350, is placed behind the organ. Altar candelabres from 1695 with the names of Henrik Below and wife. A Romanesque granite font with profiled smooth basin and a south German baptismal bowl from 1575. The pulpit is Renaissance from 1594 with the names of Henrik Below and wife.

Spøttrup Borg



Spøttrup Borg
Rødding sogn, Rødding herred, Viborg amt.

Spøttrup belonged during the 1300s to Niels Bugge of Hald. His daughter's son, queen Margrethe I's powerful rigsråd (councillor of State) , Johan Skarpenberg conveyed 1404 Spøttrup to Viborg bishopric hoping to secure a burial place for himself in the cathedral.

The castle was built in the end of the 1400s by the Viborg bishop Niels Glob. After grevefejden (civil war) Spøttup was attacked by Skipper Clement's peasant army, but the castle defied the siege in spite of the fire risk. After the reformation, when the strong castle came under the Crown in 1536, it was in 1559 endowed with the marsk Otte Krumpen. In 1570 the Crown conveyed Spøttrup with 76 farms and 4 mills to rigsråd Henrik Below (+1606), whose family owned it until 1650. Various families have owned Spøttrup since 1650. The land was little by little diminished - and the last parcellation happened after Statens Jordlovsudvalg in 1937 had taken over Spøttrup. The main building was restored under the supervision of Bolig- og Indenrigsministeriet and opened as a Herregårdsmuseum in 1941.

The main building is listed in class A. It is one of the most interesting and best preserved borge/castles in Denmark from the late Middle Ages. The entrance with the bridge directs to a meadow area stretching to Kaas Bredning(fjord). The former lake is now re-established. The buildings are placed upon a narrow motte with a moat, surrounded by a high bank on all four sides. Outside the high banks is the outer moat. The access to the castle goes via bridges which granite pillars and pile work were found during the restoration. The first building was in yellow monk bricks. The wall below the roof is decorated in small hour glass shaped stair uncoverings - the only decoration in the building. During the restoration the original wall work with hemmelighederne (the secrets/toilets) and the surroundings have been somewhat re-created. The two towers in the corners are Renaissance from ab. 1580.

The rooms in the castle are discretely furnished with inventory from the medieval period, and several rooms are with the original walls and fireplaces. In the bottom are vaulted rooms and above is the highlofted riddersal (great hall) in the whole width of the building. Also the old herregårdskøkken (kitchen) was re-created. Behind the outer moats is a reconstructed medieval Abildgård ( apple- and herbal garden) with ab. 300 various medicinal plants and spice herbs and a large rose garden. Museum and garden open to public. Spøttrup Borg

Source: Trap Danmark, Viborg amt, 1962; Niels Peter Stilling, Danmarks slotte og herregårde, 1998; Jytte Ortmann, Slotte og herregårde i Danmark, 2000.


The first Spøttrup sø (lake) was formed in Stone Age. During the Middle Ages the lake was an indispensable part of the defense of Spøttrup Borg and it also gave fish to the local families. In the 1880s were breeding of oxen at the lands of Spøttrup. This was the end of the lake which was drained to provide hay for the oxen - more profitable than fishing. Several times during the 1980s and in 1990 Limfjorden broke through the dikes under the winter storms, flooding the fields with salt water. It became too costy to maintain the draining and in 1994 it was decided to stop the draining and recreate Spøttrup sø. The former pumpehus is now a bird's observation post. There is a rich bird life at the lake and the surroundings.


A desolate coast at Limfjorden north of Nymølle.

Names from the Middle Ages and 1600s:
Ejstrup (* 1442 Esdrupp); Mollerup (1542 Mollervp); Knud (1664 Knud Bye); Grundvad ( * 1404 Grwndwatz gord, 1541 Rødinggronuad); Kær (* 1460 Kiær); Kærgårde (1546 Kiergordt); Mølvad (1683 Mølwoj); Spøttrup (* 1404 Spittrup, 1426 Sputdorp, 1486 Spøttrup); Hestehavegård (1664 Hest Hauffue); Nymølle (1541 Nøy møll).

Listed prehistorics: 6 longhills and 28 hills. In a heath north of Knud is a group of 3 hills, of which one is 3 1/2 m high. Other large hills are Vådsagerhøj west of Rødding, a hill south of Mollerup sø, 3 well-preserved Volshedehøje south of Rødding and a little to south two hills. East of Rødding is a group of 6 medium-large hills. At Ejstrup is the impressive Strangelshøj.

Demolished or destroyed: 122 hills. - In the northernest part of the parish are some kitchen middens. In a bog by Mollerup were found a clay pot with 13.000 amber pearls, the largest find of amber pearls in Denmark. They are now at Skive Museum. In a moor by Rødding were found a pair of necklaces from early Bronze Age. At Spøttrup was an Iron Age house site.

Source: Trap Danmark, Viborg amt, 1962.



At Nymølle was a tilework and a timber yard, the owner was my paternal grandfather, Jens Christensen Møller, who died in 1916. The tile work and timber yard was taken over by the oldest son, but is now abolished. This photo is from about 1895, and my father isn't born yet; he was born in 1904. The woman to the left with a small child in her lap is my grandmother and behind her stands my grandfather, Jens. (click to enlarge)

(Number two man from the right is Jens Wæver, the inventor of snurrevoddet (the Danish seine. )


photo Rødding kirke/Spøttrup Borg 2002: grethe bachmann