Elsborg church/ Elsborg kirke, Viborg amt.

Elsborg church , ab. 10 km southeast of Viborg.

Elsborg parish, Lysgård herred, Viborg amt.


The church in Elsborg has a Romanesque choir and nave and a tower to the west from the 1500s. The original sections are in granite ashlars with a bevelled plinth. The two straight-edged doors of the nave are bricked-up, and the east window of the choir, with a monolit lintel, has newer tile frames. At the east gable of the choir are some loose ashlars - some from disappeared windows. The choir has a late Gothic octagonal rib vault, and the nave a flat plaster ceiling. The tower with gables north-south is in raw granite boulder, bricks and re-used ashlars. The original entrance - through the north wall it is now a tool room with a Baroque door wing - was later replaced by a western entrance. A free staircase to the south. The tower is whitewashed, the rest is in blank wall; round arched cast iron windows, red tiled roofs. The nave has the original  oak roofing.


A bricked communion table, a Lutheran triptychon with trifoil-finish, reinstalled in 1941 with new wings. In the bottom corners of the painting of the middle cupboard from ab. 1650 are reconstructed coat of arms for Friedenreich and Linde. In 1941 the painting was removed from the altarpiece, it hangs on the wall of the nave. New altar rails. In an earlier report from the National Museum is mentioned a stone lamp, similar to the lamp in Almind church. A Romanesque granite font with a smooth basin and an irregular round foot. A baptismal dish in pewter, octagonal  with a blurred monogramme (Daniel Friedenreich ?) 1693. A contemporary baptismal jar in pewter. A pretty pulpit, now in four bays, original five bays, rich arcades in the large fields with later inserted Evangelists. The Elsborg-pulpit can probably be assigned to the demolished Gråbrødre-church in Viborg, since it acc. to church-protocol of 1862 was bought by mill-owner Jæger and was sent to Elsborg. Newer pews. Organ upon a contemporary gallery. A large Gotich psalms number board upon hinges. Bell 1903, recast from bell 1561, cast by Rasmus Lavsen (Frands Dyre of Dampsgord let cast this bell). The inventory was restored in 1941 and 1952.

Mosgård came by law-letter in 1503 to Anders Munk (Vinranke- Munk) -  and came probably thereafter to his son-in-law Jens Hvas of Ormstrup, whose children in 1541 got the king's confirmation of the 1503-letter. In 1581 it belonged to Niels Jensen Viffert of Torstedlund who in 1582 exchanged it to the Crown.

Several farms in the parish have disappeared: Aspe (1310 Aspæ), Vestergård (1494 Westergaard), Mosgård (1503 Mosgardt) and Bjergesgård (1542 Biergis Gaard).

Listed prehistorics: north of Elsborg, close to the country road, is the large hill Egehøj.
Demolished or destroyed:  26 hills, 10 were in an open group north of Elsborg.  


Names from the Middle Ages: Elsborg (1363 Ælsburgh); Høbjerg kro and water mill: (1513 Høbierg mølle).


Source: Trap Danmark, Viborg amt, 1962.   


photo: grethe bachmann