Sahl church / Sahl kirke, Houlbjerg herred, Viborg amt.

 

Sahl church has a Romanesque choir and nave with an addition to the north from 1756 and a porch to the south from the late 1800s. The Romanesque building is in granite ashlars, the choir on a double plinth. The south door is kept in use with a threequarter pillar, which runs up to the smooth tympanum, while the north door has disappeared. Original round arched windows are kept in the choir, to the east and to the north. In several, places in the walls are inserted monolite cover stones. In the southside of the choir is a chessboard ashlar. The choir arch stands with overwashed kragbånd inside, and the nave has kept its beamed ceiling, while the choir had built in two bays crossvaults in the late Gothic period. The addition was originally a burial chapel for the owners of Ormstrup, but it was cleared in 1837, and the room was equipped in 1903 as a mortuary. Above the west gable of the nave are initials and year SDG 1762. In the year 1762 probably, was the little open ridge turrret with the bell  placed.



 

High Renaissance altarpiece from ab. 1600 with decorations from the 1700s and painting-fields from 1909. Balustershaped Baroque candelabres. Romanesque granite font upon an octagonal foot.  South German bowl from ab. 1575. Finely carved Baroque pulpit from 1649 with contemporary sounding board and decorations from 1763. Pews partly in Renaissance from the beginning of the 1600s. Simple threemaster churchship from 1941.  Bell from 1764 by Caspar König.In the choir 2 gravestones:  1) Niels Mikkelsen, Ormstrup + 1622;  2) Anne Elisabeth Niim, + 1758. In the bricked-up door opening of the addition a wrought iron gating with the initials H T R (H.T. Rosborg) and by the same door are three sheet metal shields with the coat of arms of Halling.

Runestones :Two medieval gravestones with runes: one was placed on the floor in the choir door and is now in Moesgaard Museum, Århus, it has an inscription which is not possible to decipher, the other stone in the western wall of the chapel has the inscription: Inger.













Ormstrup manor is the family house of the family Hvas. Hr. Laurids Hvas bought estate in the parish in 1354; so did his widow Kirsten in 1371. O came to the son hr. Laurids Hvas (+ 1430), to his sons Per Hvas (1469) and Erik Hvas (+ 1483); the last mentioned's son Lange Jens Hvas (+ before 1503) and his children Anna and Erik Hvas, who in 1514-15 because of debt had to sell O. to the bishop in Viborg. O. came to the Crown at the reformation; in 1579 it was exchanged to Hans Johansen Lindenov, but it came back to the Crown in 1581. Frederik III transferred in 1661 O. to rentemester Mogens Friis (of Vadskærgård) of Faurskov; he gave it the name Frisholt. He transferred it in 1672 to his daughter Mette Friis, m. to High Court judge, etatsråd Christoffer Lindenov (+ 1697). At an auction after her it was sold to etatsråd Andreas Lowsen, but he sold it in 1737 to Hans Rosborg of Haraldslund  (+ 1752), who 1750 conveyed it to his son skovrider, krigsråd Hans T. Rosborg (+ 1779) whose widow Anna Wassard married amtmand, kammerråd Niels Ferslev (+ 1803).

Later owners: Hans Henrik Georg Halling, J.G.Ipsen, Christopher Joachim Gotfred Barner, A. Schønheider, Peter B.W. Sandholt, August Ditlev Friis v. Buchwald, H. Estrup, who gave the manor its old name Ormstrup. 1907: J. Laursen, 1930 Daniel Laursen.     


Owner today: Niels Due Jensen

Ormstrup today: 


In the parish was a village Simenstrup or Simmelstrup (1371 Simenstrup, 1404 Simmelstrop) and the farm Helbæk (1348 Helbeck),  which belonged to Laurits Hvas and Niels Brasen .


Listed prehistorics: 9 hills and a longhill, the 43 m long Langgård høj at the vicarage field
Destroyed or demolished: 40 hills, 7 of these made a group Hundshøje at Skibelund.

In Sahl mose was found a large number of bronze rings from Celtic Iron Age.

Names from the Middle Ages:
Sahl (1348 Sael, 1355 Salæ); Skibelund (1354 Skiblund); Ormstrup (1419 Oremstorp); Vinkelholm (1580 Vinkelholm).

Source: Trap Danmark Viborg amt 1962.