Vrads church / Vrads kirke, Vrads herred, Skanderborg amt.

Vrads Church, ab. 12 km southwest of Silkeborg
Vrads sogn, Vrads herred, Skanderborg amt.



Vrads church has a choir and nave and a porch to the north. The choir and nave are in raw granite boulder, probably from Romanesque period, although only the choir arch and the round arched north door are preserved. The plinth and the granite ashlars on the western gable are probably from a repair in the late 1500s when the church was dilapidated and was allowed to fetch carved boulders from the desolate churches in Tømmerby and Brande (royal letter of 14/3 1592). A Romanesque window lintel is placed in the dike of the church yard. The choir has a flat plastered ceiling, the nave a beamed ceiling. At the western gable is a bell tower and a tool shed.



A new altar panel in Renaissance style, a carved altar piece from 1654 similar to Skorup church (Gjern herred) and like this with carved coat of arms of the vasal at Silkeborg Mogens Høg and his two wives, in the middle field was brought to light an original painting. The altar chalice was in 1754 given by Christen and Rasmus Langballe, the altar candelabres in 1653 by Kirstine Munk of Boller. From a Catholic altar origins a late Gothic figure, Mary and the child, now oak-painted and placed in the nave. A baptismal font in Gotland limestone, neo-Gothic (ab. 1300), but partly re-carved in Renaissance style. A baptismal bowl in copper from the 1700s. A pulpit in Renaissance (ab. 1600) later decorated with figures from the same workshop as the altar piece. The bell was cast 1767 by Caspar Kønig in Viborg.


Opposite the church is a popular old-fashioned grocery with a café.

I Grane plantage findes Tingdalen, hvori en stensamling på det sted, hvor herredstinget menes at have været holdt.

En meget betydelig del af sognet er dækket af skove og plantager.

Ved bortkørsel af sand fra en høj i Kongsø plantage lidt vest for Kongsøgården fandtes 1904 en hensmuldrende læderpung med nogle få sølvsager (23 g) and 666 coins, mainly German, Anglo-Saxon and Danish, the earliest from Hardicanute.

South of Torup sø, a little north of the farm Engdal, is a 2-3 m high circular bank (diameter ab. 40 m) in a small lake. It seems to be a medieval castle bank.


Vrads Sande

Names in the Middle Ages and 1600s:
Vrads (* 1343 Wradtz, 1573 Wradtzbye); Torup (* 1517 Thorrup); Store og Lille Bredlund( 1510 Brelwnd); Kærshoved (* 1500 Kiershoffuit); Godrum (1631 Gade Rønnær, Goederømme); Tyklund (1579 Tyckelund); Knop (* 1517 Kolbenknob marck, 1586 Kolpenknub); Ansø Møllegård ( * 1481 Ansøe marck, 1586 Ansøegaardtt, Ansøemølle); Snabegård (1610 Snnaab, 1664 Snæbe); Favrholt (1610 Fouerhollth); Vipskovgård (1610 Huepschoff, 1664 Huipschouff); Kolpensig(1586 Kolpensiig); Lystruphave (1688 Lystrup Hauge); Sillerupgård (1489 Sillerop).

Listed prehistorics: Two longhills, 87 hills and a circular paved burial site. One of the longhills is the 58 m long Givkonen at Knop. Several hills are rather big: Vrads høj west of Vrads, two hills in Kongsø plantage, one in Knudskov plantage and one, somewhat outdigged in the outskirts of Langbjerg plantage.

Demolished or destroyed: 44 hills, almost all hills are or were in the southeastern part of the parish. Until 1905 the parish was annex of Vinding , but became an independent parish.

Source: Trap Danmark, Skanderborg amt, 1964.



photo Vrads kirke etc: 2003/2003/2008: gretha bachmann