Vistoft church / Vistoft kirke, Mols herred, Randers amt.

Vistoft Church, 20 km from Ebeltoft
Vistoft sogn, Mols herred, Randers amt

The choir and the nave are Romanesque while the western extension with styltetårn (stilted tower) and porch are late Gothic. The Romanesque part is built in raw and cleaved granite boulder with ashlar details. Part of a Romanesque window is seen upon the southern wall of the nave. The cross vault of the choir and the arch are late Gothic. The Gothic additions are built in monk bricks, but heavily repaired. Upon the triumph wall are late Gothic frescoes and in the vault of the choir a.o. Jens Iversen Lange's coat of arms and an emblem. The church restored in 1942, floors yellow tiles and greypainted beamed ceiling in nave and western extension.


Naive evangelist figures from an earlier Renaissance altar piece.

The altar piece is a middle field of a big Renaissance altar piece from 1666, a pair of naive evangelist figures from the same altar piece are on the wall of the nave. Some figures from an earlier Gothic altar piece are exhibited at Ebeltoft Museum. The Romanesque granite font has a smooth basin. South German baptismal basin from 1627. The Renaissance pulpit is from 1627. The pews have an incomplete inscription: "Anno domini 1681 lod PAS og GLD disse stolle indsette." (P. Andersen and Gertrud Lavridsdatter). A confessional is partly made from old pews with relief letters: "CCS IND 1666" like the confessional in Tved church. Church ship "Agnethe", Danmark, 1938. Gothic bell without inscription.


Mols landscape

Names in the Middle Ages:
Vistoft (1443 Westofft); Begtrup (1. half of the 1300s Bekkithorp, Bekkethorp); Fuglsø (1. half of the 1300s Fughlæsiomark); Viderup ( 1578 Viibdrup, 1604 Viderup); Bogens (*1203 Bocnes); Toggerbo (*1446 Toggerboll, 1579 Thogerbo); Læggerholm (1579 Legerholm, Leggerholm); Bogensholm (*1420 Bogensholm); Kærsgård ( 1636 Kiersgaard).

Bogensholm, farm/manor, in 1203 bishop Peder Vognsen in Århus handed over some estate and the forest in Bogens to his church. (Århus Cathedral). At the reformation the farm came to the Crown, which in 1579 exchanged the property to Mourids Stygge of Holbækgård, whose sister's sons Hans and Iver Dyre together with their brother-in-law Jørgen Kruse 1627 sold Bogensholm to Ellen Rostrup, who gave it to her daughter's daughter, whose father Gert Bryske was the owner in 1633. In 1669 Henrik Gyldenstierne sold it to Knud Bille of Skerrildgård, who exchanged it to Predbjørn Gyldenstierne of Møllerup, to which estate it was a part until 1796. Several owners up till the present.

The rampart of the first Bogensholm is situated in a flat meadow east of the present farm, the place is called Enggårdsholmen - it is a low four-sided rise, surrounded by a moat, and it seems to have been divided in one big and two lesser islets.


Mols, a farm.

Rødegård, Vistoft parish, farm/manor, also named Vistoftgård, was built in the 1600s by Bodil Pedersdatter, widow of herredsfoged (district bailiff) Poul Nielsen in Strandkær and later married to Hans Jacobsen of Rolsøgård. Several owners up till present. Rests of a brick-built building were in 1760 found at Rødegård, possibly the farm was placed close to the south east of the church yard, where rubbles were found.


Mols landscape

Vester Mølle (Mill) is listed in class B.; it was in 1959 restored with a contribution from locals and from the National Museum.

In Vistoft parish were two sacred wells, one at Laursesbjerg west of Toggerbro, and one in the dry sand hills Karpenbjerge at Begtrup Mark.

Listed prehistorics: two round dolmens, one long dolmen, 4 dolmen chambers - of which one northwest of Strands , named Stenhuset, has a hexagonal chamber with a cover stone. - 4 indefinable dolmens and 24 hills of which several er rather large: Trehøje north of Fuglsø, Store Jættehøj south of Fuglsø, the two Præstehøje or Brunhøje at Klokkerholm and Lindhøj at Begtrup. In one of the dolmens were found 3 clay pots and some amber pearls.
Demolished or destroyed: 4 dolmens, a passage grave, 4 indefinable stone graves and 25 hills. At Strands is noted a settlement from early Roman period.

Source : Trap Danmark, Randers Amt, 1963

photo Vistoft kirke & Mols, 2003/ 2007: grethe bachmann