Føvling church/Føvling kirke, Tyrsting herred, Skanderborg amt.

The secluded church in Føvling parish has a choir and nave from Romanesque period with a late Gothic tower to the west and a porch to the south. The Romanesque building is in travertine, hardpan  and raw granite boulder upon a vaguely marked plinth. The plan is strange, since the choir is only a little more narrow than the nave. Besides the smooth, round choir arch no Romanesque details are kept, since the building in the high Gothic period ab. 1400, was somewhat rebuilt. At this point the west gable was rebuilt in monk bricks and had a glare decoration with three round-arched high glares, while the choir gable had five point-arched high glares , now a little down-cut with smooth roof lines. Ab. 1475 was in the nave built two bays, and in the choir one bay octagonal cross vaults, and large point-arched windows were inserted to the south. A tower waas added to the west, which bottom room opens to the nave in a broad, vaugely pointed tower arch. A ladder at the north wall leads up to a flatcurved door in the middle storey. The upper section and most of the southside of the tower was rewalled in 1856, when it got smooth stepped gables north-south. It was earlier completed by a wooden spire of unknown age. The southside of the porch contains old, and probably late Gothic wallwork, but it was rebuilt in the 1800s with a new glare gable.At the choir gable is placed a couple of heavy supporting pillars.  The roofworks are rebuilt, they contain much old timber.

The vaults of the nave and the choir have a light frescoe decoration from the building-start with trifoils and lilies. The altarpiece is a simple joinery in Renaissance from the beginning of the 1600s. Its colours have been etched off and the paintings from ab. 1950 are by Gudrun Lorenzen. On the back of the altarpiece are placed two older paintings, a crucifixion picture from the 1700s and Christ from 1873 by P.A.Lyders. Altar chalice from 1745, heavy neo Gothic candelabres. A Romanesque granite font with three lions of the Tamdrup-type and an angel. The pulpit is a simple joinery from the 1700s with winding pillars in the corners. Behind the communion table are rests of old pew-gables, dated 1571. The bell with the names of the Three Wise Men is carved ab. 1500 by Albertus Pauli.

gravehill near Føvling

A main farm in Føvling belonged in 1432 to Terkel Pedersen (Væbner), in 1466-1504 to his son Peder Terkelsen (Væbner); in an exchange after him in 1510 his son Ove Pedersen (Væbner), got Søndergård in Føvling  etc., while the main farm itself probably went to his brother Terkel Pedersen (Væbner), who in 1532-46 is written of Føvling; his son Peder Terkelsen (Væbner )(+ 1587) was the last male of the family, his widow Else Juul had the farm in 1592, and it was now called Væbnersholm.  In 1612 V. belonged to Peder Terkelsens sister's daughter's son Jacob Krabbe of Damsgård, who in 1649 sold it to Elisabeth Daa. It was inherited by her son Cortfitz Ulfeld of Mattrup, whio in 1670 conveyed V. and some estate to his son Jakob Ulfeld of Kærgårdsholm as a payment for his maternal heritage. Jakob Ulfeldt was punished by the king for his treatment of his wife, and at his death in 1688 his estate among this V. went to the king. In 1694 V. was laid out as ryttergods (military) and was inhabited by 2 peasants. When the rytterdistricts in Skanderborg were abandoned in 1767, a main farm, Våbensholm, was established from V. , it was in 1768 sold together with Nedenskov-Vilholt, and it was in 1798 incorporated in the entailed estate Mattrup, but after the abolition of the entailed estate V. still followed Mattrup, but it was combined into one farm in 1856.

Jens Henriksen of Føvling is mentioned 1430 and 1449. Torlof Hval of Føvling in 1455.

The sacred spring Ingeborgs kilde was found at Helligkildegård.

Listed prehistorics: 11 hills, of which one of two Staghøje at Våbensholm, is large; along Gudenå river upon a low terrain lies a row of 9 hills and 10 demolished, mostly Stone Age single graves.
Demolished or destroyed: 24 hills.   

Names from the Middle Ages and 1600s: Føvling (1432 Føyling, 1455 Føgligh); Hårup (1347 Haffuetorp, 1492 Haarup); Over- og Neder Åstrup (1489 Astropp); Våbensholm (1664 Webnerholmbs hovedgaard); Ståholm (1683 Staaholm); Bøgebjerg (1664 Bøgebierg gaard).

Source: Trap Danmark, Skanderborg amt, 1964.     

photo 2009: grethe bachmann