Friday, March 23, 2012

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













The large whitewashed church, which lies upon a hill in the southern outskirts of the village Fruering, was in the Middle Ages consecrated to Vor Frue. The building has a Romanesque nave, a late Romanesque? choir and a late Gothic western tower and a porch to the south. The nave is built in travertine and raw granite boulder. From original details are inside to the south two small windows. There is no trace of the north door, while the south door is outside and appears with a flatcurved uncover. A more narrow choir was connected to the nave earlier, this was replaced by the present choir, which has the same broadth as the nave; it is built in raw granite boulder and monk bricks above a high plinth in granite ashlars with a bevel edge and corner heads, which - like a secondary placed monolit-lintel from a Romanesque window - might origin from the earlier choir. Two round arched doors in respectively the north and south wall close to the triumph arch stand now as inside glares. Two doors in that place is an unusual sight in the choir of a common parish church, and their placement might raise the question if the church in some way was connected to the klosters in Ring or at Kalvø in Skanderborg sø (lake). In the northern wall of the nave is a narrow and lowplaced, now glared, Gothic window with cross-cover and a pointed arch in the lighting. In the choir was in the 1500s built two bays of cross-vaults and four bays in the nave with halfstone-ribs; at the same time the choir arch was probably extended and changed into a point-arched shape. The tower is built in monk bricks and boulder, upon the gables and under the roof of the long-sides are circular glares. The tower room is now a store room, it has a flatcurved outside-door to the north and a broad round arched arcade towards the nave, which is now glared by a narrow barrier wall.  The porch is built in monk bricks. From present time are the heavy supporting pillars along the walls of the church. The church has now neo-Romanesque windows.

 












A walled communion table, covered in a panel, which partly is from the 1700s. A stately Renaissance altarpiece from the beginning of the 1600s, probably carved by the joiner Oluf Olufsen, who lived in Hedemølle in the parish; in the big field a painting of the Holy Communion by Mogens Fogh in 1743, who also painted the crucifixion scene in the top piece; upon the back of the altarpiece hangs a free copy of Leonardo da Vinci's Holy Communion, made in 1862 by teacher Niels Jensen in Boes. Altar chalices from 1701 and 1934, the oldest remade by Martinus Trøner, who in 1701 also gave an oblate-box to the church. Altar candelabres from 1702, according to inscription given by parish priest Hans Lønborg and wife Inger Maria Trøner. The cup-shaped Romanesque granite font is decorated with arcades and animal reliefs. A baptismal dish from 1693, given by above mentioned Hans Lønborg as a memory of his first wife Maria Rosenmeyer, + 1689 in childbirth. A Renaissance pulpit from ab. 1600, according to inscription inserted by Morten Jørgensen in Rindelev; sounding board from 1648. New, closed pews. In the nave hangs a small crucifix, carved by Gunnar Hansen in 1948. Organ with neo-Baroque facade. A bell from 1698 with the crowned monogram and motto of Chr. V., carved by Peter Christoffer Geiger in Lübeck.

In the nave an epitaph for the priest Peder Nielsen Rønning, + 1682 and wife Maren Jensdatter. In the choir a sandstone epitaph for the priest Christian Ludvig Blok, + 1768 and wife Elisabeth Falk, + 179..;  in the porch a gravestone for the priest Knud Iensøn + 16.., and wife Mare Bundisdatter, + 16... A newer gravestone was moved to the garden of Rathlousdal manor.



Upon Kirkebakken ( church hill) ab. 300 m west northwest of Sophienlund was once Rindelev kirke, which is not mentioned in medieval sources. Acc. to Pont. Atlas Torrild church is extended with material from Rindelev church. At an excavation, which the National Museum did in 1922, the foundations revealed a small Romanesque church which had a choir and nave, which all or partly was built in travertine. In the terasse at Sophienlund is in the wall inserted a travertine ashlar from the site and a fragment of a Romanesque gravestone in granite with a cross relief.   -   In Kejlstrup was also a church (1683 Kedelstrup kierk), which last wall-rests were carried away in 1871 and 1877. In Kejlstrups lade (barn) is inserted a small Romanesque gravestone with a cross-stick in sunken relief and a smooth granite stone with a faint edge-profile,  found on the church site. Acc. to the legend Vitved church is built in stones from here. This cannot be true though.         

The family house Herschendsgave was established in 1788 by Peter Herschend, + 1796. A small main building was built in 1769 upon the place, where the desolate burnt Gjesing mill stood. A new main building northeast of this was built in 1868. Among the foundation stones are Romanesque picture ashlars. 
Owner in 1964: I Laursen.

Rindelevgård was in the 1600s under Skanderborg castle , from 1717 under Skanderborg rytterdistrikt.
Sold in 1767 to Dorothea Sophie Schack, widow after Chr. Rathlou; the farm got the name Sophienlund and was under Rathlousdal. Owner in 1964: H.C. Wiese.

The parish has got its name after Ringkloster which earlier belonged here. The reason for the division was said to be that the priest in Hylke parish during a "vacance" in Fruering pastorat (parish) complained to Chr. IV that his pastorat was too small, and his neighbours' too big, and the king took Ringkloster, Nissumgård and Tammestrup Øde from Fruering and added them to Hylke.

Vestermølle, which lies in a ravine, has often had floods, like in 1833 and 1881, but worst in 1909 when the mill-dam bursted and the water took the mill building, which was on fire after a lightning. In the 1700s was a fabrication of colours (yellow ochre). In Rødemølle was also a fabrication of colours from 1751, when the Crown established an ochre-fabric - and brown-red clays were made here. This stopped in the beginning of the 1800s.

At Vestermølle was a sacred spring Jernkilden; another spring is at Skårup upon the slope at Århus-Horsens landevej (country road). 

Listed prehistorics: 3 hills, among those the large Storehøj at Hvolbæk.
Demolished or destroyed: 16 hills.

An important find from a settlement from early Roman Iron Age was made at Gjesing. From Hvolbæk origins a treasure-find from Germanic Iron Age with 6 gold rings and 3 bracteates.

Names from the Middle Ages and 1600s: Fruering (1520 Ringh, Ryngj, 1573 Ring, Ringbye, 1664 Fruering, Ring); Virring (1311 Werrigh); Svinsager (1319 Suinszagger marck); Hvolbæk (1573 Huolbeck); Skårup (1573 Skarup, Skarrup); Gjesing (1305 Gesing mark); Vestermølle (1573 Wester Mølle); Hedemølle (1573 Hie Mølle); Rødemølle (1573 Røe Mølle).

GB

Source: Trap Danmark, Skanderborg amt, 1964.
photo 2004: grethe bachmann

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