Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Dover church/ Dover kirke, Hjelmslev herred, Skanderborg amt.













The church in Dover is a large free-standing building, which possibly was a  herredskirke, (district church). It has a Romanesque choir and nave with a western tower and a porch from the Middle Ages to the south. The Romanesque sections are characterized by being built in hardpan ashlars (Danish: jernal),  a material, which appears here and there in the wallwork of Jutland churches, but it was only in exceptional cases used as a main building material in the churches. In the white-washed walls are seen no original details, and because of the uplift of the terrain around the church the plinth is not visible. The eastern gable of the choir was re-walled in 1863 and equipped with glares and a stepped gable. The unusually long nave is possibly built in two stages. The south door seems to have been flatly uncovered, but it is now round-arched. In the late Gothic period one bay crossvault was built in the choir and four bays in the nave with halfstone ribs. The church has now large round-arched windows to the south, but there are no openings in the other walls. The narrow tower in monk bricks and granite boulder and with stepped gables to the north and south, was originally open to the west under a high pointed arch (stilt); the arch is now bricked-up, and the tower is  a storehouse. The simple porch is in monk bricks. New supporting pillars on choir, nave and tower.

A 1600s communion-table panel. The altarpiece is a copy after A. Dorph's painting Christ with Martha and Maria, made in 1878 by teacher Niels Jensen in Boes. In the frame are two pillars and diverse details from a Renaissance altarpiece; in the top piece are pietistic symbols from the 1700s. In the nave hangs a resurrection-painting upon canvas, which was earlier in the large field of the altarpiece. Altar chalice from 1889. Large ore candelabres, according to inscription given on Christmas Evening 1592 by Niels Jacobssen in Nygård, who was a castle-scribe at Skanderborg castle, and wife Margrete Christoffersdatter (Udsøn). In the south wall of the choir is immured a cupboard, which might be Gothic in its oldest sections. Upon the north wall hangs a small Gothic thurible. A large Romanesque granite font with double lions in a pretty relief. A baptismal dish, a Netherland work from ab. 1600 with relief. A pulpit in Renaissance from 1594 with naive Evangelist-reliefs and a crucifixion-scene. A contemporary sounding board. The decorations of the pulpit from 1643 was brought to light in the restoration in 1939. A parish clerk stool and pews from the 1700s. Organ upon a western gallery, which has paintings with Christ and the apostles, made by above mentioned Niels Jensen in 1888. A series pastorum  below the gallery. The bell is cast in 1747 from an earlier bell from 1507 (Jacob Rendler in Århus). In the choir a pretty, small sandstone epitaph for the priest Anders Michelsøn  (+ 1596) and wife, with sa secundary inscription for the priest Niels Andersøn (+ 16...), with two wives and several children. At the tower stands a large figure gravestone for above mentioned Niels Jacobssen and wife and a worn-out gravestone from the 1600s with Evangelist-medaillons in the corners. A large, dominating burial chapel at the entrance of the church yard.

In Illerup and Boes were churches in the Middle Ages. Illerup (Egeltorp) is also mentioned as a parish in 1317. The church was still in use in 1524, but was abandoned before 1552, and Illerup is mentioned the last time as a parish in 1573. The same year Illerup is mentioned in Dover parish. There was no trace of the church already in 1623, but upon Kirkebakken to the south of Illerup, west of the road to Skanderborg, were found skeletons, and in an examination in 1946 also pieces from medieval tile stones (Skanderborg museum). - The church or chapel in Boes is first time mentioned in written sources in a priest report in 1623, where "the old church yard" is mentioned, which could still be seen in the terrain. The church was possibly situated upon the hillside in the western outskirts of the village, where were found rests of skeletons and brickwork.















Niels Jonsen (Munk) got in 1343 a life's letter on Nygård from Øm kloster. After the reformation it was under Skanderborg castle, later under Skanderborg rytterdistrikt; it was inhabited by the jægermester ( chief hunter) in Nørrejylland Rehnert Gallichen de la Roche, who died here in 1712. In 1767 it was bought by Oluf Mandix of Bisgård in Tamdrup parish. He conveyed it together with other estate to Just Rasmussen in Vrold in 1775, but the next year the parish priest H.P.Lund sold it to ridefoged (bailiff) at Silkeborg Jens Grønbech, and after this it was split up in several farms.

At Dover was a sacred spring Hjelmslev kilde mentioned in 1623, at Ravnsø Karlskilden or Karlekilden.

Listed prehistorics: 32 hills, of which several are rather large: Vejhøj and Illeruphøj at Bjedstrup, Frederikshøj, which together with two other hills lie upon a hill at Karenslund, Maglehøj, Toskæphøj, Tippethøj and the two Alkenhøje around Siim. In Hemstok skov lies a close group of 7 lesser hills.

Demolished or destroyed: a polygonal dolmen chamber south of Bjedstrup and 132 hills, especially many hills were in a belt which from  Illerup went through the eastern part of the parish to Hemstok and Nygårde, another big hillgroup stretched from Svejstrup to the northwest to Siim.

Settlements from the Gudenåkultur are known from Rye Møllesø, Siimholm and Birksø. From Svejstrup Damgård origins a settlement and an iron extraction place from Celtic Iron Age. From the same time are possibly also a number of skeletons and a wooden shield, which were found at Vædebro near Illerup Å's outlet in Mossø. A rich settlement from early Roman Iron Age is known from Moselund in Siim.
Names from the Middle Ages and 1600s: Dover kirke (1239 Dauer sogen, 1266 ecclesiam Dofræ); Bjedstrup (1554 Biestrup; (Illerup (1317 Egeltorp, 1554 Illerup); Siim (1338 Seen, 1575 Sim); Boes (1554 Buoes); Firgårde (1758 Firegaarde); Nygårde (1343 Nygaa(r)dt); Hemstok (1554 Hemstock); Brandstrupgård (1578 Brendstrup Hede, 1664 Brandstrup Schouff ,1683 Branstrup).

Source: Trap Danmark, Skanderborg amt, 1964. 

photo 2007/2008: grethe bachmann

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