The whitewashed church in Bjerre has a choir and nave from Romanesque period with a late Gothic tower to the west and a later porch to the south. The Romanesque building is in travertine without any visible plinth, and it has not kept special original details. In the late Gothic period was in the choir built one, in the nave three cross vaults and the choir arch was extended. At almost the same time the tower was added withan eight rib-vault in the bottom room and a round tower arch. In the north wall of the tower is a straight-running stairway up to the middle storey. The porch is built in monk bricks but it has no dated details.
The altar piece is a Renaissance structure from ab. 1630 with two pillars. It was decorated in 1741 and repaired in 1939. The present painting, Christ is healing a sick, was painted by Anker Lund in 1892; an earlier painting, The Crucifixion, hangs above the exit door. Altar chalice from 1774 with names and coat of arms of Hans Helmer Lüttichau and wife. Balustershaped Baroque candelabres, from ab. 1650. The Romanesque granite font has a rather roughly carved basin with large lions and a dragon in flat-relief, divided by trees. The round foot has corner-knots. A South German dish with engraved coat of arms of Walkendorf and Egern-Friis. A sounding board from the beginning of the 1700s, similar to the choir desk, which has naive biblical paintings. Upon the desk stand two late Gothic small-figures of Virgin Mary and Sct Laurentius. A torso of an indefinable crucifix-figure is at Glud Museum. A pulpit in Renaissance, ab. 1630, with Tuscany corner pillars and a contemporary sounding board. An interesting early Gothic bell from ab. 1325-50, without inscription, but with seal imprint, which in the shield shows a murtinde (wall peak) and the word "Nicles...nes". In the porch two very worn out gravestones from the late 1700s with naive Evangelist symbols.
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| corner of Bjerre church, building behind is old local prison. |
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| Bjerre, landscape |
Names in the Middle Ages:
Sdr. Bjerre (1287 Bierg); Bjerrelide (1479 Lyæ, 1480 Lydhæ).
Bjerregård (1383 Byærghægarth), was in 1383 sold by Anders Mortensen Pæp (Kyrning) to Eskild Falk; in 1399 it was together with a watermill by hr. Barnum Eriksen (Skarsholm-family) pawned to hr. Jens Eskildsen.
Bjerre and Hatting herred's thing house stood upon Bjerre mark (field) in the time of Pontoppidan's Atlas; The execution place was at Bjerrelide.
Pugholm (1511 Pugholm), a disappeared farm, is mentioned in the beginning of the 1500s.
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| Bjerre skov. |
There are no listed prehistorics in the parish, but there were 4 hills, of which one, Purhøj, was placed upon the top of Bjerrelide.
At Bjerrelide was found a pretty sacrifice from late Bronze Age with a belt plate, a jewelry-box and two broad bracelets - and a burial site with earth graves from early Roman Iron Age.
Source: Trap Danmark, Vejle amt.1964.
photo 2004: grethe bachmann
