Auning church / Auning kirke, Sønderhald herred, Randers amt.

foto: stig bachmann nielsen, naturplan.dk

The church in Auning has a nave and a choir  with an apse, a tower to the west, a porch to the south and a chapel to the north. The apse origins from the Romanesque period, it is in raw and cleaved granite boulder, from the Romanesque period are also the choir and the 2 eastern bays of the nave in granite ashlars, all built above a plinth with a bevel edge. The south door and several Romanesque windows, like a low placed round arched opening in the southside of the choir (leprosy window?) are kept as bricked-up. The choir arch is outside, the kragsten  with rope windings from the original choir arch lie upon  the church yard. The apse has an original halfcupola vault. In connection to an enheightening of the walls (red monk bricks)  a cross vault was in the late Middle Ages built in the choir and two star vaults in the nave. In 1616 the nave was extended with one bay to the west (octagonal vault), and the tower was added, both sections are built in red monk bricks above some re-used ashlars. The tower has glare gables to the north and south. (the year 1616 is seen on the south side), and a round arch connects the vaulted tower room with the nave. The porch origins from the same time (at the south side of the western extension), and its architecture is similar to the towers'. The vaulted burial chapel is built ab.1700 by Jørgen Skeels widow Benedicte Margrethe Brockdorff (initials upon the gable) in small red and yellow bricks above a granite plinth. At the western side of the tower was in present time built a half roofed building in red bricks; it is now a store house. The apse and the south side of choir and nave are white-washed; apse, choir and nave are lead-roofed, the tower and porch tile-roofed and the burial chapel slate-roofed. Upon the vaults of the choir and the nave were biblical frescoes brought to light from 1562. painted by Rasmus Roter. Included in the paintings is a rib decoration from ab. 1500. 

A walled communion table with an altar cloth from 1962. A richly carved altarpiece from ab. 1650 with the coat of arms of Christen Skeel den Rige (the Rich) and Birgitte Rosenkrantz. The altarpiece reminds about the altarpiece in Fausing churc, but it has a resurrection relief in the middle field. It was restored with gold and colours in 1932.






































 Altar candelabres from the second half of the 1600s in rich, cast silver with the city seal of Augsburg and a master brand, which probably can be ascribed to the silver smith Heinrich Mannlich. The altar chalice was given in 1673 by Christen Skeel and Birgitte Rosenkrantz. A carved wooden baptismal font with a sounding board from 1736; the font stands in the tower room and is encircled by an octagonal  wooden work similar to the kneeling. A baptismal dish, south German, from the 1500s. A pulpit in late Renaissance style, richly carved with inscription "Niels Kock fecit 1636" (like Fausing church).The reliefs of the pulpit represent the crucifixion, the resurrection and the Evangelists, the decoration is from 1837. Pews from the 1700s, upon the upper sections of the pews are the coat of arms of the family Skeel and Winterfeldt and the year 1726. In the nave a large Baroque chandelier with coat of arms (Gyldenstierne and Friis).













In the burial chapel, divided from the church by an iron gate door, is a magnificent marble epitaph for Jørgen Skeel ( + 1695), made by the sculptor Th. Quellinus, and set up by the widow Benedicte Margrethe  Brockdorff. In the chapel are furthermore 14 coffins (11 marble, 3 sandstone with marble tablets) with Jørgen Skeel, his son Christen Skeel (+ 1731) (several banners conquered by him once hang in the chapel), his wife Augusta Winterfeldt, (+ 1740), their son Jørgen Scheel (+ 1786), and his two wives, Lucia v Thienen, (+ 1743), and Charlotte Louise v. Plessen, (+ 1801), Russian minister Christen Scheel (+ 1771) and wife Eleonore v. Raben, (+ 1808) at Ulstrup, and their 5 children, among these kammerherre, oberstløjtnant Jørgen Scheel, (+ 1825) and his wife Mette Christiane Bille (+ 1844). In a burial vault under the nave were grev Christen Scheel (+ 1844) and wife Christiane, née Pind (+ 1855) , but they were later transferred to the family burial in Lunden. ( grove in the wood).  In the floor of the nave is a gravestone from 1665 for bailiff at Estrup Martinus Seeman and wife and their two sons.

At the south east corner of the church yard lies the former hospital, established by Jørgen Skeel (+ 1631) and Jørgen Scheel (+ 1786) for 9 poor parishioners. The pretty white-washed monk brick building is possibly a rebuilt medieval church barn. After the abolition of the hospital  it was used as a burial chapel.

Per Henriksen Prip is in 1438 written of Lille Tårup, his brother Jes Henriksen Prip is written to it from 1453 and together with his sons Henrik and Erik he exchanged it and 7 farms and 1 desolate building place in 1468 to Lave Brok of Estrup. 

In 1956 a memorial was revealed for the "wise man" of the district, Laust Nielsen from Tversiggård.

Listed prehistorics: In Tårup skov a round dolmen with two partly destroyed chambers, and 8 hills of which 5 are in Tårup skov.

Demolished or destroyed: 5 long dolmens and 24 hills, one of the long dolmens was very large with 3 chambers.

A medieval road plan was found in a moor south of Auning in 1945.

Names in the Middle Ages: Auning (1450 Aningh); Tårup, (1438 Lille Tordrop, 1450 Tordrvp).