Estruplund church / Estruplund kirke and Estruplund, Rougsø herred, Randers amt.

Estruplund Church, 20 km northeast of Randers
Estruplund sogn, Rougsø herred, Randers amt.

interior

The white-washed church is surrounded by forest and is placed close to the manor Estruplund. The choir with an apse in the eastern side of the nave is built in tiles from the late Romanesque period with a connection to the other architecture from the end of the 1100s and the beginning of the 1200s. The southern section of the nave has preserved a low round sticked frieze and on the north side below the cornice an almost completely preserved round arched frieze with pillar formed consols known from the Zealand building-works from the period of the Valdemar-kings. Traces of a similar frieze is on the south side of the porch. Both doors are preserved. An original window is preserved in the north wall of the nave. The impressive tower by the western gable has a pyramid spire.



frescoes 1400s-1500s


frescoes 1400s-1500s

Upon the walled communion table are two Baroque brass candlesticks and as an altar decoration is a wooden cross - the former altar-decoration, a small Renaissance altar piece from about 1600 with a new painting is now in the porch. The Romanesque granite font has a simple rope twist upon the basin. The baptismal basin from 1575 has the inscription "Christen Seefelt og fru Lene Rosenkrantz". The oak pulpit is a simple carved joinery with sounding board and the year 1663. An old iron-bound money block is at the south door. In the tower are two bells -the oldest from the end of the 1200s.

The inside of the church is marked by a big restoration in 1953-55. Frescoes were discovered in 1863 but they were covered again. Now they are uncovered and restored. They are from the end of the 1400s and the beginning of the 1500s.

Names in the Middle Ages:
Estruplund kirke (1632 Estruplunds Kirke); Store Sjørup (* 1423 Siorup, 1462 Østersørop, 1509 Store Sørop); Tørslev (* 1425 Tørsløff, 1426 Thørsløff); Ingerslev (* 1187 Inggelsleff, 1426 Inggersløff, 1437 Ingisløff); Hevring mølle (1455 Hæffringh mølnesteth).

There are no preserved prehistorics in the parish.


Estruplund, 20 km northeast of Randers

village pond, Estruplund

In 1499 hr. Erik Ottesen Rosenkrantz wrote some estate i Rougsø herred and the forest Estruplund to his late son Holger's children. Here was later established a manor which in 1609 and 1613 belonged to Anders Jørgensen Friis of Haraldskær , and after him to Eske Brok of Gl. Estrup, who took over his paternal manor when he was 18 years in 1578 - and he extended the estate immensely during some years. He died in 1625 and via his daughter Estruplund came in 1638 to another rich man Frans Lykke, who used it as a farm building of Hevringholm. When Frans Lykke died in 1655 the big manor was inherited by his son Kaj Lykke who was famous for his wealth and charm - but he really had some bad luck when he in a letter to his mistress had suggested that the Danish queen Sophie Amalie had a relationship to her servant. This was a lese-majesty and he ended his days a poor man and had his estate confiscated to the Crown. During the next 200 years Estruplund went from hand to hand until 1942, when Oluf von Lowzow inherited the manor. The main building from 1863 was rebuilt in the 1950s.

Source: Source: Trap Danmark, Randers amt, 1963, Jytte Ortmann: Slotte og herregårde i Danmark
photo 2003: grethe bachmann