Falslev church / Falslev kirke, Onsild herred, Randers amt.

Falslev Church; photo stig bachmann nielsen, naturplan.dk

tympanum with two lions

Falslev church has a Romanesque choir and nave with late Gothic additions: a tower to the west and a porch to the south. The Romanesque section is in granite ashlars upon a bevel plinth. Both original doors are preserved, the bricked-up south door has a tympanum with a flat relief with two elegant lions -  it seems the north door is earlier with a lion and a bear in each of the fields, framed by narrow round sticks with band decorations. Similar decorations are seen on the windows of the choir to the east and north; the north window was bricked up in the Gothic period with a frescoe inauguration cross in the brick -  a round arch window in the north wall of the nave is bricked-up. In the south wall of the nave is an ashlar with a chessboard decoration. The choir arch inside has profiled kragbånd. The nave has a beamed ceiling, while the choir in the late Gothic period had a cross vault, probably almost contemporary to a tower of re-used ashlar material and red monk bricks. The flat-lofted bottom room of the tower opens to the nave in a present re-opened round arch. It was originally open to the west in a tall pointed arch. From the same time as the tower is the porch with a flatcurved door in a pointed mirror. It has to the west and east small flatcurved windows , bricked- up to the west. The building was repaired in 1952, there were fragments of a frescoe, dated 1574.

Romanesque communion table

Upon the Romanesque ashlar communion table stands a carpenter neo-Romanesque altarpiece with a painting of Christ, a copy from the late 1800s. The altar chalice is in Renaissance (new cup), probably contemporary to the desc, which was given in the 1600s by Niels Nielsøn and Sille Johannesdatter. Slender Baroque candelabres in brass. A Romanesque granite font with a smooth basin on a foot shaped as a cubic capital with animal heads in the corners. South German bowl from ab. 1575. The pulpit is a simple work in late Renaissance with a painted flower decoration from 1701. A money tablet from 1701 with a picture of Lazarus. Church ship: a schooner from 1892.

Ballegård belonged for a long time to the family Kruse. In 1430 it was owned by Mikkel Kruse, 1459-72  by Laurids Pedersen Kruse, then in 1479-83 by his son-in-law Anders Lounkjær and his son Peder Lauridsen Kruse 1493. The last mentioned's son Enevold Kruse was married to Kirsten Ovesdatter Reventlow, who in 1520 is written "of Balle".  Their son Christoffer Kruse, who still lived in 1543, also owned the farm, which then went to his son High Court judge Peder Kruse (+ 1562) and his children Viffert Kruse (+ 1565) and Laurids Kruse (+ 1597), who in 1582 built a halftimbered building to the farm. It was inherited after him from father to son: Mogens Kruse (+ 1624), Otto Kruse (+ 1628), Tyge Kruse (+ 1650),  his widow Margrethe Vincentsdatter Steensen pawned the farm in 1652, and the son Otto Kruse (+ 1699) sold it in 1684 to Chr. Jensen at Vivebro, who the next year sold it to Eva Margrethe Pentz, later married to the above mentioned Otto Kruse, who in 1697 conveyed B. to manager Hans Axelsen Steenberg (+ 1698), his widow Mette Graa (+ 1717), married in 1701 to Jakob Bastrup, who in 1707 conveyed B. to Anders Laursen of Tørrild  (+ 1716).

Later owners: Niels Hvass (+ 1799), Knud Høyer, Jørgen Quitzow (+ 1805), Peder Bonne, Niels Winther (+ 1852), Christoffer Berg, (+ 1855), Joh. Fr. Neckelmann (+ 1853), family Glenstrup from 1879, owner in 1963: G.V. Røien.

In Assens lived from 1467 the væbner Jep Henriksen (Kirt?). In 1494 he conveyed his farm to Mariager kloster and had in return a "life's letter" on the farm. His sister's sons Mogens and Mads Knudsen (Benderup) lived in A., where they are still mentioned in 1511. In 1520 is mentioned Knud Madsen (Benderup) in A., and in 1546 he sold the farm to his relative Peder Kruse of Ballegård, whose son's son's widow Dorte Vestenie in 1634 from her daughter-in-law Sophie Staverskov had a "life's letter" on a farm in A.

Northwest of Ballegård at the fjord a sacred spring, another spring Thekilden in the garden.

In the parish was earlier mentioned Rødehuset (1688 Røehuuset). It was by auction conveyed to kancelliråd Severin Bendtzen of Havnø by the Crown.

Listed prehistorics: At Ballegård a passage grave with a chamber with 8 supporting stones and one big cover stone and with a 6 m long entrance. And 5 longhills, 23 hills and a stone circle. All hills, of which 5 are rather large, are placed south of Assens, where is a close group of 11 hills, while 7 are more spread.

Demolished or destroyed: A dolmen chamber and 23 hills.  

In several places along the coast are or were kitchen middens. From Simons Moor origins a strange sacrifice find from early  Bronze Age, consisting of 9 bronze bowls and an arm ring with spirals. In the Cementfabric Dania's chalk pit was found a settlement from early Roman Iron Age.

Names from the Middle Ages and 1600s:
Falslev (1371 Falckløff, 1463 Falsløff); Assens (1371 Asensz, 1478 Assnes); Ballegård (1430 Baligh, 1479 Balle, 1559 Ballegaardt); Blæsborg (1634 Bleyesbierrig, 1664 Blesberig). 


Source: Trap Danmark, Randers amt, 1963.

photo January 2012: grethe bachmann and stig bachmann nielsen, naturplan.dk